Rating: STYLE
Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means it doesn’t take long to break in)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
Rating: UPPER DURABILITY
Rating: OVERALL

These shoes lasted 20 skate days

Alright alright, anyone who knows me knows that I have talked a lot of trash on Nike skate shoes. I try to stick to skater owned companies and Nike represents the enemy. I have been dared over and over to actually try a pair and I finally gave in on the condition they were free. So huge thanks to Jaimie for hooking me with a pair. I’ll start with the style. They were bright red and they look like golf shoes. They aren’t D3 ugly, but pretty close. I painted the upper part black though and they ended up looking alright. They also game with a super thick “Lunarlon” insole. They were way too thick for me so I swapped them out for some Lakai insoles I had. The board feel was ok. Although if I would have been forced to skate those lunar insoles I can’t imagine how bad the feel would be. In my book insoles are meant to be swapped out though. This made them kind of a loose fitting shoe, but that’s my bad and the shoe is clearly designed for a thicker insole. The impressive part of the shoes is the durability. I normally blow through shoes faster then this. It’s not however, night and day longer then other shoes. I normally blow out the sole on the front foot setting up for flip tricks. This is the first time I’ve ever blown out the heel of my back foot. Still though, they lasted a long time and I wore them for a week straight all over Montreal, hiking, etc. I will give them credit on durability. Overall I am happy to say that I gave these shoes an honest try and will not be tempted to get them ever again. Nor should you. Support some skater owned brands and lets get rid of this crap.

Rating: STYLE
Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means it doesn’t take long to break in)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
Rating: UPPER DURABILITY
Rating: OVERALL

These shoes lasted 10 skate days

On the cupsole tip again these days. These shoes have kind of a weird fit. The collar is a bit puffy for me and I wanted to lace one more eyelet, but it would make the shoe too tight in the collar. The board feel wasn’t great. They skated decent before the sole went flat, but once the tread was gone they skated pretty bad.

Rating: STYLE
Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means it doesn’t take long to break in)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
Rating: UPPER DURABILITY
Rating: OVERALL

These shoes lasted 11 skate days

My first regular cupsoles in a long time. The pain in my quads had me wanting to see if cupsoles would help. They did. These were the only shoes I could find for me. Surprisingly they seemed broke in within a couple days of wearing them to work. The bright yellow sole was a bit annoying, but whatevs. They skated great. The surprising thing to me was how much they skated like vulcs. Excellent board feel, but with a little more support which my aching legs appreciated. The biggest negagive is how quickly the tread wore out. It was only a couple days before the sole was flat. They still gripped, but not quite as well. Overall this shoe was excellent. If only the sole would have lasted longer I would list this as one of my favorite shoes.

Rating: STYLE
Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means it doesn’t take long to break in)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
Rating: UPPER DURABILITY
Rating: OVERALL

These shoes suck so bad I couldn’t keep skating them

These are some of the worst skate shoes I’ve ever had. They are some type of hybrid fake vulcanized cupsole. The results are some of the worst skate shoes ever. The gum soles slip off the grip. They don’t flick. They are so floppy they should have just been vulcanized shoes. The back of the shoe blew out. Granted I had worn them to work for about a year before skating in them. Still though, horrible shoes.

Rating: STYLE
Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means it doesn’t take long to break in)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
Rating: UPPER DURABILITY
Rating: OVERALL

I skated these shoes for 11 skate days, but they had more life in them

I had these shoes recently and they blew out way too quick. But Meta Sam told me that Lakai had a new manufacture and the soles were better. Since this shoe has one of the best uppers ever I was willing to give it a try. Much to my surprise the sole was much better this time around. The tread pattern still wore off quick, but was still grippy and showed no signs of a hole. This is one of my favorite vulcanized shoes. Glad to see Lakai getting it together.

These shoes lasted 15 skate days

Rating: STYLE
Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means quick break in period)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
Rating: UPPER DURABILITY
Rating: OVERALL

DC is as corporate as I will go with a shoe company. Wes Kremer rules though and it was about time I support my fine friends at Motive and get some shoes from them. I wish I could have tried them on as it seems DCs run smaller then other skate shoe brands and I would have liked a bigger size. Oh well, they are vulc so they stretched out and ended up fitting great. Other then the ugly brown/black colorway this is one of the best shoes I’ve had in awhile. The board feel was great, they were ready to skate pretty much right out of the box and they held up well. They should give up on the “Super Suede” saying though, I had to shoe goo the toe just as quickly as any other shoe brand with normal suede. All in all though a great shoe that I was really impressed with.

Rating: STYLE
Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means quick break in period)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
Rating: UPPER DURABILITY
Rating: OVERALL

These shoes lasted 12 skate days

My first Sole Tech shoes in awhile. Man, they are comfy. That’s about all I have to say good about these shoes though. They took a long time to break in. The inside of the shoe on the heel tore out so my right achilles was rubbing on something hard. The tread pattern wore out quick. The soles still felt decent when I gave up on. They had a little hole starting in the sole. I would have kept skating them, but I didn’t feel like shoe goo’ing the toe area for the 4th time. The board feel wasn’t all that either. I think Emerica takes pride in making kind of bulkier shoes, so maybe they would be good for you.

Rating: STYLE
Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means quick break in period)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
Rating: UPPER DURABILITY
Rating: OVERALL

These shoes lasted 10 skate days

Another couple weeks and another shoe review. I’ve been blowing through shoes like nobody’s business. Vox shoes run a little wide and the Class X is no exception. My feet aren’t that wide so I had some discomfort with my toes sliding around in them. They do have great board feel though and these shoes take almost no time to break in. The uppers help up pretty good and it was several sessions before I had to shoe goo the section where my razor toe sticks out. I superglued the stitching on the toe cap before skating them though which I think gave the upper a longer life. The soles didn’t hold up very well and I only skated them 10 days before the hole on the sole appeared which is my signal to move on to new shoes. If you have wide feet and want a slim, stylee shoe the Class X might be perfect for you.

Rating: STYLE
Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means it doesn’t take long to break in)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
Rating: UPPER DURABILITY
Rating: OVERALL

These shoes lasted 6 skate days

I’ve had a few pairs of these. The first pair seemed like the best shoe ever made. The second didn’t last so long. This pair pretty much set the low bar on sole durability. They only lasted six days! Most of which were short sessions on Rampy. This is really bad. The shoe is a comfy and stylish shoe, but a sole that wears out this quick is not acceptable. I hope Lakai puts the thicker tread on this shoe. It’s experiences like this that make me consider large corporate company shoes. Shame on you Lakai.

** NOTE ** I had another pair of these after being told Lakai had a new manufacture and they were much better.

Rating: STYLE
Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means it doesn’t take long to break in)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
Rating: UPPER DURABILITY
Rating: OVERALL

These shoes lasted 11 skate days.

It isn’t any mystery that Lakai is one of my favorite shoe brands. And for good reason. They are skater owned, their shoes are simple, their team is amazing, they make videos and the colorways are always on point. I’ve had a couple of the Brea’s and decided it’s time to get my shoe reviews going again. I am not a fan of the thick insole Lakai has been putting in their vulcanized shoes. I take them out and use some old sole tech insoles along with my orthodic insoles. I have never cared about insoles in shoes though. If I don’t like them I will just use some old ones that I do like (although I should note that my wife probably cares considering some insoles I’ve used for like six months straight). I always wear my shoes for awhile before skating too. I have never thought shoes should be perfect for skating right out of the box. With that said, I may have put these in the work rotation a little longer then most meaning they took awhile to break in. But it was worth it. It’s a great skate shoe. The upper never needed shoe goo which is incredible by my standards. The sole was not so durable though. The tread pattern wore off pretty quick and as you can see I eventually wore through it. I am pretty well known for blowing through shoes quickly though. I do a lot of flip tricks, clean my griptape and weigh almost two hundred bills.

Overall I like this shoe.