In my brutally honest opinion, I must say they are the most underrated sneakers of all time. The OG Instapump Fury 94 was quite popular and even the pop icons of that era wore them on stage. But the later version called," Instapump Fury 2" never became as popular as the OG (the 94).
These are very unique and different from the rest of the Instapump Fury series shoes. These are mostly made with the 90's style mesh with some synthetic leather and some tough cordura-like nylon material.
I like these and most of the Pump Fury series shoes especially those now called the 95. These IPF 95 used to be called Insta Pump Fury 2 as I already mentioned above. I had a few pairs of these in 1995 and I also bought them when they first retro-ed them in 2002.
At the time (1995), I was too young to know the real cool features of these shoes, but I simply loved the futuristic silhouette with some nice graphite plate.
Many people and Reebok themselves love the OG 94 more but I prefer the 95 much better. For me the 95 fit better and provide a bit comfier ride.
Personally, I consider these one of the most iconic silhouettes of all-time, and I much preferred these to the NB 997 US, which was originally introduced also in 1994 and now considered one of the most iconic silhouettes of all time.
Unlike the NB 997, these Instapump Fury series shoes are not just look-good kind of shoes but also super comfy.
The 997 looked really fantastic especially on feet (at least we thought so back then), but I find these super uncomfortable like the Jordan 1 Low or the NB 550's now. The Instapump Fury 95 were also considered to be a super futuristic silhouette back then, and many of us considered them the most comfortable shoes of that era, and some of us even consider them as the most comfortable and futuristic sneaker silhouette of all time. Iconically enough, both the 997 and the Instapump Fury series were designed by Steven Smith, who is considered to be one of the most important shoes designers of all time.
The 998 (the successor to the 997) shoes were also super rigid and uncomfortable. If these two iconic NB shoes had a bit better fit and comfort, then I'd much prefer them to the 991, 992, 993 and 990 v4, but the 997 and the 998 are extremely uncomfortable shoes (just like the Jordan 4) and I cannot wear them any longer than a few minutes.
So, I sold all my 997 US and 997 H, I also hated the 999 too, but these can be a bit better depends on the type of the upper used on these. There are 3 types of upper for the 999: 1 typical suede and mesh, 2 Cordura and leather, 3 Cordura and suede or nubuck. I think the upper 1 is acceptable, but all the other types of the 999 with some sort of Cordura nylon material are extremely rigid and get extremely hot in the summer.
Anyway, I prefer the Instapump Fury to anything came in the same or similar era runner type shoes including the 997, the 998, the airmax 95, the airmax 97, the Adidas Ozweego 3, etc.
I think Puma and Reebok are really underrated, many NB fanboys think NB is underrated still, but they are now overrated. I mean if the 550 and the 2002R do not become some of their mainstay shoes, then what else will they really have? Just the Made and the 574? See? they are no longer underrated. The 1906R, the 90/60, the 2002R, the 550, the 610T, the 327, etc. are all cool for now, but will these silhouettes survive for a long time like a decade or two to truly become some of their mainstays?
None of these are tested silhouettes with time, Nike airmax 1, 95 or 90 are really timeless shoes and always stay in their mainstay line, so are AF1, AJ1, Dunk, AJ4, AJ3, AJ11, etc.....but NB has only a couple or at best a several of mainstays: 1 574, 2 990X, 3 1500, 4 991. All other silhouettes they try to push so hard are already losing value or dying. The XC72 seem to be already dead, the 237 does look like dying too, the RC1300 and 1600 do not look like selling well either and I bet that they will die soon. So, I think NB is now super overrated, and once the current NB boom dies, they will become just like they were before the current long-lasted boom: the best dad shoes manufacture that most of sneaker-fanatics will avoid buying. Sure, even a decade from now I will be still buying the 1906R, the 580, the 860v2, the 990 V4, etc., because I really love them. But chances are these silhouettes will all die out before their current boom hype train dies as most of those guys online flexing their hyped shoes are all just superficial temporal NB lovers.
I think the 990X, the 991, the 993, the 574, the 1500 (and maybe the 2002R) will survive for a long time like a couple of decades, but most other silhouettes will go out of their mainstay shoes catalog.
Remember most of their once hard-pushed new silhouettes that they introduced in the last 3 years or so now all died or are dying now. The XC72, the 237, the 725, the MT 580, the RC1300, the RC30, etc. are already dying or have already died as they never really become as popular as NB hoped them to be. And these are all relatively new silhouettes (just like 2 or 3 years old at best). Most shoe silhouettes will never survive 3 decades like the Insta Pump Fury or the airmax 90, or the AF1, or the 990 series, or the Jordan1, or the Superstar. Gazelle, Campus and Samba. And these Adidas neoclassic shoes are super popular now but think about how unpopular these were just a few years ago, so many shoes just come and go, only the real special ones with some interesting stories behind the silhouette become real timeless shoes like these Pump, the airmax 1, the AJ1, etc. never go away always stay in their respective mainstay lineup. Unfortunately, NB does not have many of these real time-tested timeless shoes at least in the under 200 US price category.
