NIKE JORDAN

       NIKE AIR MAX                                                                   PUMA IGNITE 


PUMA IGNITE 
Color: Deep Blue-Team Italia Navy-Fluo Peach

Puma's marketing pitch: Our most responsive running shoe ever.

Surfaces tested on: Road, ambient temperature of 25° C/77° F.

Upper: Mesh, synthetic nubuck leather no-sew overlays, TPU logo welds.

Midsole: Single density Polyurethane with foam insert under heel.

Outsole: Puma's Evertrack Carbon rubber from heel to toe, decorative Urethane insert under heel.

Weight: 321 gms/ 11.3 Oz for a half pair of US11/UK 10/EUR 44.5/CM 29

REVIEW

It is a sign of market maturity that a shoe like the UnderArmour Speedform Gemini is showered with much praise from many. Because it does not ride soft like how most neutral running shoes have behaved for long – in the context that softness has historically been equated with cushioning.

The ride is slightly responsive, but there’s no escaping the firm undertone of UA’s charged foam. Thus the fact that so many people have taken to something like that is a healthy signal of how the running shoe market is clearly coming of age.

The only problem is, no one knows what to expect from a brand new running shoe release. Companies which make running shoes seem to build their promotional boilerplate from a very narrow set of keywords. It is almost as if all these brands refer to a single dictionary of marketing adjectives every time they want to sell a shoe. And going by the words thrown around, that dictionary must be very, very slim.

‘Responsive’ is the most abused word, done to death by brands to promote a midsole behavior which might mean either soft, soft with a springy feedback, firm, firm and reactive, or even something with no feedback at all. Nothing is more abstract than running shoe marketing, where a set of identical sounding words is open to a diverse (and often confusing) range of interpretation.

So when Puma drops the much maligned ‘R’ word, what does it mean, exactly?

The reason why we opened the review with a reference to the Speedform Gemini is that the Puma Ignite shares something in common with UA’s newest. A ride character which is tinged with firm, and slightly more so than the Gemini. There is some amount of softness, but never the dominating attribute to froth up. So why does Puma calls the Ignite ‘its most responsive running shoe ever’?

We pointed out that marketing buzzwords were often lost in translation, and in this case as many others, Puma’s usage of the word ‘Responsive’ seems highly contextualised. It would have been far more clearer if we’d been able to compare the Ignite to rest of Puma’s running line – like the FAAS family of models, for example. We assume that Puma describes the Ignite’s cushioning relative to its other existing models, so we’re curious to know how those feel.

But this is the first Puma running shoe on solereview in ages. The last one was the Puma Complete Phasis in 2008, so we have to judge the Ignite on its own merits and shortcomings.

The bottom-line is, we love the Ignite’s ride character, much like our impression of the Gemini. Puma’s firm ride with a ghost of a responsive undertone is efficient, and helps promote a brisk running cadence which feels good. Transitions feel smooth and seamless, helped both by the midsole material and a few design features.

It is also important to clear the air about what the Ignite foam is actually made of. It is easy to mix up the adidas Boost and Ignite platform, considering that both brands boast using of Polyurethane as the base compound. But these two foams are anything but similar, and only thing common here is that Puma and adidas work out of Herzogenaurach, a tongue twister of a town in Germany.

NIKE AIR MAX 

Nike's marketing pitch: Lightweight, plush comfort.

Upper: Molded engineered Flymesh, inner sleeve.

Midsole: Compression molded EVA foam, full-length Max Air Bag. 13 mm heel offset.

Outsole: Hard, translucent rubber.

Weight: 366 gms/ 13 Oz for a half pair of Men's US 10/UK 9/EUR 44/CM 27.1

REVIEW

             The fact that the Nike Air Max 20xx series has been the most counterfeited sports footwear style in recent times is a testament to its mass appeal as a casual shoe.

Some of the rip-offs are so well made that it’s hard to tell them apart. And why doesn’t Nike go after these guys? Because the process will end up becoming the footwear version of whack-a-mole, with too much energy spent for little results.

The best way in this scenario would be to move forward, which brings us to the Air Max 2017.

The Air Max platform might have fallen out of favor with serious runners, but it still helps Nike sell shiploads of shoes. When the first AM version – the Air Max 2006 to be precise – made its public appearance over a decade ago, plenty of Nike running shoes still came with Max Air heels.

Old timers will remember the popular Air Max Moto and other ‘tiered’ versions of the Air Max 2006 such as the Air Max 180 and 90. But it’s soon going to be 2017, and the running shoe landscape has evolved by leaps and bounds.

When compared to some of the best running shoes in the market today (including Nike’s), Air Max infused running shoes look and ride like a marketing gimmick. As of today, there are five Air Max models categorized as performance running shoes by Nike.

Besides the Air Max 2017, there’s the Air Max Sequent 2, the Air Max Excellerate 5, and the Air Max Tailwind. There’s a Flyknit iteration of the Air Max which retails at an eye-watering MSRP of $225.

Like the regular AM17, none of these models make the grade as a performance running shoe. Even so, Nike knows that it has to pander to the needs of the casual consumer as much as it needs to meet the requirements of serious runners. That is ok, but then Nike should make a clear distinction between the two, and not slot these products in the performance running category.

NIKE AIR MAX 2017   

PUMA IGNITE -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------n