This part of this forest park is quite open and bright even at dusk or after sunset. I think this one was photographed at around 19 o'clock. Most of trees here are some sort of cherries.
At this part of this park, I tested 5 shoes:
1 Adidas Supernova Cushion 7
2 Adidas Ozweego Suede (charcoal and dark grey colorway)
3 Nike airmax 1 PRM Ugly Duckling Pecan
4 NB 1906R Beige
5 Puma RSX Effekt
6 Puma RS-Fast Muted beige and neutral grey colorway
7 Nike React Infinity 3 (it is a running shoe, but I like the design and comfort level it provides, and now use them for my walking or photographic trips that involve a lot of walking).
8 Reebok Insta Pump Fury 95 (originally called Instapump Fury 2 in 1995).
9 NB 878 Beige
After testing these shoes here, I found that the casual shoes are weak, really not up to hiking at this sort of hill.
My Puma RSX Effekt Grey black pair now seem to be useless completely destroyed by this trail course, and I only wore these once at this park. My Adidas Ozweego survived this test and still like new. Puma RS Fast seem still fine, but there are a lot of frays and tears on the mesh and fake suede on that pair. I cannot return them anymore as they are completely destroyed now, but if I could return. These two Puma do not deserve my attention anymore. I never thought these are this weak. The Reebok pair seem also bad now, really damaged knit and mesh and the plastic materials on the shoes seem to get a lot of hard and deep scratches. These are still wearable, but I am too embarrassed to wear them in a city or in any public places like train stations.
My Nike airmax 1 PRM Ugly Duckling got a few light scratches from some trees or maybe from some stones. But these are otherwise still perfect. I was positively surprised on how durable these are in real life use. scenario like this.
The Adidas Supernova 7 seem to be fine almost no damage to the mostly predominantly mesh upper. The midsole got a few light scratches, but I cannot see them unless I use my magnified glass to carefully examine them. So that Adidas pair seem to be also very durable, and that's a big positive surprise too.
My NB 1906R seem to be pretty durable too, but they got some tears and wears in the mesh upper. If you get one of the all leather 1906R or cordura pack of shoes, then they will last longer than the predominantly mesh ones like my pair.
My NB 878 got many visible scratches and I think I need to replace mine with a new pair. I really love the 878 in beige and I think I will have to get another pair of these. There are many grey ones still left, but the light beige/gold colorway seems to be difficult to get now. And I think for the 878, the beige or bone colorway is the best.
I must write about the Nike React Infinity Run 3, I had 2 pairs of the version 1 and these are still like brand new shoes after about 600 miles. And I still use the version 1 very often for long walks. I was always curious about the version 2 as I loved my Infinity React 1 or OG so much and I really wanted that, but many reviewers hated that for the weak tongue and upper design. So, I waited really long like 11 months and at the last Nike sell event here, I just bought a pair of React Infinity Run 3 in Grey Green Navy colorway for just like 6990 yen.
Long story short, I think these are some of the toughest shoes ever. The react foam lasts forever. The outsole Nike uses for these lasts really really long. My first pair of React Infinity Run Silver Grey colorway lasted over 4 years and I used them almost 3 times every week throughout the COVID years (2020 and 2021), since April 2022 I have used that pair of shoes for travel for 2 years or so. Still no sign of dying.
These React Infinity Run series shoes are super durable, super comfy, super cool in feet, and I think the most cost-effective walking shoes ever. I think if you use them for hardcore running, then they will not last as long as they last for me, but still at least 4 or 3 years of life in them. I literally abused them and put them through toughest tests every time I walk travel.
Even for shopping and walking with my cats I used the shoes, so, I think I at least logged about 800 or more of serious miles onto that pair, and they have no sign of damage.
And those Infinity Run 1 and 3 experience really woke me up to see the reality that Nike did not really care about the Lifestyle market, their main focus was always serious athletic performance shoe market. That's why, they've always made shitty low-quality casual shoes with very questionable QC for those casual shoe users and collectors' market. They always know that we do not complain or force them to improve the QC on their mainstream lifestyle shoes like Dunk or Jordan as long as these are still super desirable or limited. They know they can easily get away with the current very questionable level of horrible QC as long as it is a collab or some limited colorway, people who buy Dunks or Jordan 1's never complain how shitty trashy the materials on these are or how horrible the QC on these shoes really is. That's why waiting for Nike or Adidas to improve their QC on their lifestyle shoes is wasting of your time. And one thing we can do to just say we are not happy about the current level of QC on their mainstream lifestyle shoes is to return all bad pairs even if the colorway is super rare or limited. That's the only way to force them to improve their terrible QC on their mainstream lifestyle shoes. Honestly, I never received any bad Nike, NB or Adidas performance shoes. And most of my casual shoes I buy from them are horrible both in the material and the QC, and every month I return their lifestyle shoes, on average 13 pairs every month. This shows me clearly that their real main focus is still their performance line shoes. Nike never fucks their Metcon line or Pegasus line users, but us their casual shoes users.
Adidas does the same, their QC on their lifestyle line is much worse than their highend performance line shoes like Boston 12 or Dropset Trainer. I never received any bad pair of their performance focused shoes like The Total or the Dropset Drainer or even Adister 2.
NB seems to follow the same trend; their performance line shoes are always excellent out of the box. I have a several pair of their 1080 V12 and V13, and none of them are bad at all.
In contrast, I've received 7 pairs of bad M991 UK grey and Olive and all of these I had to return. Puma and Reebok seem also similar, their performance line shoes are always great, but their lifestyle shoes like Insta Pump Fury, Classic Leather, RSX, Slipstream, etc. are not so great in terms of the material used and QC. And I do not know why but their casual shoes never last as long as their performance shoes. In fact, in case of Puma, their casual shoes normally just last 3 or 4 months.
And in case of Reebok, their casual shoes have about only 1/9th of life of their performance line shoes. Maybe I abuse shoes too much, but remember I never wear any pair of my casual shoes more than 3 times a month, and I usually use my Nike React Infinity Run 3 and NB 1080 V13 for walking almost every day or every other day. Oh, and I literally use my Nike Metcon 8 Lemonade Grey for every squat session and deadlife. And They last long, really long like 2 years.
Also, I find my Metcon 8 really cool, handsome shoes even for casual outing (they are too firm for casual outing, though).
