crooked tongues magazine News Features

Part 3 is good but the Nike Free Run+ 2 is the best of this series thus far. This shoe is pivotal in pushing performance running back to a casual crowd — it had been a minute since we'd had a shoe that was good for both running and posing and while the first Free Run (the LIVESTRONGS are still incredible) brought Free back after a post-2004 high and subsequent dip, seeing the aqua and oranges of the sequel everywhere indicated that something was truly changing. Now performance isn't something to hide in a kit bag and surreptitiously switch into for running — that bizarre fad for making running shoes willfully ugly (at least that's what we assumed was the case) seems to be done and dusted. You might have missed the Free Run+ 2 City Pack when it launched last year at Tier Zero level, but Nike have decided to bring it back with some minor changes.

Normally a rapid reissue like this would piss us off, but you know what? These deserved even more wear and everybody should get the opportunity to grab the greens - one of the best running colourways in a long time. Previously branded as a Rio de Janeiro edition, that colour, offset by the speckled concrete grey on the sole unit is a thing of beauty. These lose the reflective laces but they gain the rubberised toe bumper for extra reinforcement during city runs/post-work drinks that was actually mentioned in an early release for the City Pack, but didn't materialise in the finished product and that actually makes them better than the original drop, so if anybody's smug about "early adoption," tell them what we told you and then stomp on their unprotected, synthetic suede toe. Also coming back inline is the Anthracite colour that was previously a New York edition (which, as we understand, drops a little later) and the black Tokyo makeup. All three arrive in the Crooked Tongues store soon.