I've been training parkour for quite a couple of years now, and tried many kind of footwear. I started with regular running shoes, but they were stiff and heavy, so after a while i tried the Feiyue martial arts shoes. Many tracers recommend those, since they're flexible, fairly comfortable, and relatively cheap (i use them as a comparison, since many of you probably already know them). But i also trained a lot without shoes, and i loved the feeling so much, that i never liked putting my shoes back on. And last spring i had the opportunity to try the Freet Stride 4+1 out for the first time. It was a different world! I already wrote about it here (i recommend checking it out if you're interested), so now let's just stay with parkour!
You'll feel everything under your feet: cracks, stones, rails, loose surfaces, etc. But at the same time, they somehow let you do harder stuff than with Feiyues. Or at least it's my experience: landings are many times smoother with these, i can easily do jumps i'd never dare doing in Feiyues, but interestingly the sole of Freets is thinner and even harder.
Their flexibility is excellent! Doing precisions, rail balancing, climbing, etc. are surprisingly easy, my feet put themselves just where i imagined. However if i accidentally ruined a precision jump by not landing exactly on the balls, it did hurt a lot on sharp edges! Again, technique is key!
The other important thing for us, is grip. Well, i must admit, they aren't very good on some surfaces... Especially during their first few days while the treads are sharp, they feel a bit slippery even on concrete! Feiyue's soles are so soft, they flow around every crack, but these are made of a little harder compound, so you won't stick to everything as good. Or at least not for a couple of days, because once they got a little worn, they'll feel great again! On natural surfaces (ground, rocks, wood, etc.) they're probably the far best i've ever tried, also on rails or other, relatively clean surfaces. But if the concrete is a little crumbly, they'll just scrape down the upper layers.
However, these harder soles also mean that they're a lot more durable than those yellow rubber ones... They just won't give up after a few bad cat leaps, or some weeks of running.
Also, these shoes have roughly the same amount of grip in every direction, what is really useful for horizontal wallruns, changing directions, etc.
After all these technical things, let's see how they actually do their job!
Running is just as easy as barefoot, without being afraid of stepping on sharp stuff.
Jumping is really powerful with them, probably because of the wide toe-box, and the relatively thin sole. I'll measure it, but i think these definitely increase jumping height.
Landings are smooth, the feedback from the ground is really quick. But i wouldn't recommend too high impact movements, barefoot shoes are not suitable for that anyways.
Wall-runs aren't their speciality, but again, with correct technique it can't be a problem.
Balancing is super easy, you can even grab the rails with your toes if you want to.
Climbing is awesome, you'll know everything under your feet.
Stability is also a good point. Feiyue's soles are curved, so you need to be aware of your ankle all the time. It can be a useful feature, but in extreme situations when every little thing matters, it's bad, or even dangerous. Freets have pretty naturally shaped soles, so you won't roll your ankle (at least not because of your unstable shoes).
This stability also plays a significant role in accelerating! Since their front part isn't round (or even worse: pointy), they let you to put all your power into running, and you won't have to worry about "balancing". I've been wearing Feiyues for years, and never even thought about it, but this foot-shaped toe-box do make a big difference.
And the most important thing in my opinion, is the overall feeling when you move: they feel like gloves on your foot, every movement is smooth, precise, and really powerful. They're agile, you'll just run and forget about everything behind you. And i think, this is the best feeling in parkour.
But after all these positive things i have to share the bad ones, too.
Most of their models have their soles made of two different compounds. And we tracers all know, what happens to these glued treads after a few slip-offs... It's not that bad, i usually lose only the two smallest pieces, but still... it could be avoided. Fortunately not every models are made like this, and newer ones are coming with single-piece soles.
Climbing on rails can by tricky. Nothing serious, but you have to keep in mind, that your big toe lives a different life from the others. So QM and vertical pole-climbing is a new challenge. Not necessarily harder, but different.
The first few precision landings were a bit strange, because i somehow managed to step with one feet on the other's edge. I guess, it was just a bad habit that came from the old shoes, it never happened to me since then.
If it rains, don't even try to run up on trees. Trust me, it won't work ;)
All in all, i love these shoes, and can honestly recommend them to every tracers. Probably wouldn't be the best choice for really high drops on concrete, but who's already on that level, knows it.
Oh yes, one more thing: the price. Feiyues are really cheap, that's why many of us use those. Freets have a lot better quality, so you can guess, they're quite expensive just to destroy them in a few months. But (and here comes the smooth advertisement :D) this code gives 30% discount on every products from the official website:
Gyorgy
http://freet.uk/
If you have any further questions, please feel free to ask me! I also started a test/comparison video-series, what i'll expand in time, you can watch it here:
Thank you for reading, train safe and have fun! ;)
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