Like a chocolate truck and peanut butter truck colliding on the freeway, Nike has finally combined two of its most popular lines into one. But do they go together like the aforementioned tasty duo?
The sole of the shoe had the most work to do. The Metcon and Free have nearly polar opposite profiles. The Free is relatively soft and flexible and the Metcon is firm and rigid. Amazingly, the shoe pulls off both pretty well. It works for both lifting and plyometric work, but isn’t quite at the level of the regular Metcon for the former. It’s just as good as the regular Free TR at the latter, however. That sort of makes us wonder, “Why not just use this as the standard Free TR sole? There’s no real reason to have this shoe, when the Free TR should already be functioning how this does. The obvious answer would be that the Free TR is softer, but cushion can be found in several other Nike training shoes.
The actual issue with the shoe is the upper. While mostly fine, the Jordan-inspired cage at the ankle is pretty baffling. It’s fairly wide and isn’t very secure. It took us experimenting with several lacing patterns to figure out something that would actually hold the heel well.
The Nike Free x Metcon is an OK shoe, but if you need a workhorse, why not just shell out $10 more and get the Metcon 4? Or get the 3 for $100, at this point. The needless mashing up of two signature lines, the styling, and the price all just make us think this was designed as a shoe for style bros so they won’t hurt themselves in the gym by wearing Air Vapor Maxes anymore.
Score: 6.5/10
Hi i noticed you mentioned the free tr v8 and ive been trying to decide between the metcon and those, have tou tried those also and would you recommend them over the metcons?
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That’s a hard call. But I would actually suggest the Nike Tech Trainer. It has the same price as the Free TR 8, but is actually part of the Metcon line (it uses the same sole as last year’s DSX Repper). If price is no object, then the Free x Metcon is a better choice.
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