Sizing

The Nike SB Dunk Ishod Wair fits true to size.

Durability

Overall, the durability of the Nike SB Dunk IW is good. Skateshoes with rubber protected or seamless one-piece toe caps, often have exceptional durability. The Dunk IW, however, does not have either; there are some important seams that hold the shoe together that are visible in the toe area. Thus, there are inevitable first signs of wear and holes after skating 10 hours but, the most attacked area is still adequately protected. The suede used in the shoe left us a good impression, being made of high quality, which compensates for the flaw in having seams in the toe area. It’s also important to note that the positioning of the swoosh is good because it is positioned more towards the heel area which helps decrease the probability of the swoosh detaching or falling off once the seams holding it to the shoe have been ripped. The sole itself showed fantastic durability. No slick spots appeared, and judging by the deep thread pattern it’s quite unlikely that some would show up anytime soon.

Cushioning

The Nike SB Dunk Ishod Wair is well-suited for high-impact skating and the cushioning is excellent. Similar to the P-Rod 9, Nike is not using their patented Lunarlon technology, but instead, uses the Zoom Air cushioning technology. The developers at Nike adapted the Zoom technology and added a unit in the sockliner which creates the cushioning. The use of these cushioning elements enables it to dampen harsh landings and bails extremely well. The cushioning capabilities can already be felt from just walking or just pushing in the shoe. The feet feel well protected and safe in Ishod’s new Dunk.

Shape

As shown in the pictures, the Nike SB Dunk is extremely slimmed down compared to the classic SB Dunk. In general the shape is cut rather slim in the mid foot, toe as well as heel area. The toe area especially, is cut very tight, which helps ensure a safe and secure feeling. The shape is rather parallel, ending in a stump toe area and a blunt tip.

Boardfeel and grip

Boardfeel of the Dunk Ishod Wair is good and grip is average. The boardfeeling is good because the sole is not too thick and thus there is not much material between foot and board. Also the toe are is slimmer compared to the heel area which creates the excellent cushioning and a solid boardfeel. The grip is evaluated as average because the sole does not really develop the necessary flexibility to enable the shoe to mold into the concave creating a direct boardfeel.

Comfort and stability

The inner lining of the Dunk is a very good feature of the shoe with regards to comfort. As a result, comfort is good and the stability is excellent. The Dunk Ishod Wair has an internal fit system which makes sure there are no pressure points. The slim fit as well as the combination of suede and synthetic material offers the perfect combination of minimal padding with a great heel lock and stability. As mentioned before the stability of the model is excellent. In the beginning the shoe is quite stiff but gradually loses this stiffness to a certain degree – this in return, creates the perfect stability afterwards but can be uncomfortable at first.

Summary

The Nike SB slimmed down Ishod Wair Dunk Pro has outstanding stability and offers superior cushioning due to the Zoom Air bag technology. Another advantage is the durability of the shoe. Despite being very supportive for high-impact skating, the boardfeel, grip and the stiffness of the shoe have potential for improvement.

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Check out the Nike SB Dunk Low Pro IW at ARROW&BEAST

ARROW&BEAST Nike SB Dunk Low Pro IW

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Ishod came to the Berlin Weartest and for the launch of his Dunk Low Pro “Ishod Wair” shoe. Together with Solo Skatemag and Place Skatemag we had the chance to chat with him and ask him about his shoe, Love Park and cars.

Could you describe the process of developing your new shoe.

It was more the thing that I was telling them a bunch of time to slim down the dunk and they finally were willing to do this. I wasn’t expecting them to be like “Hey this is your new shoe” I just thought that they gonna slim it up and me being like “Sick this is a perfect Dunk now”. It just kinda turned on me in the best way possible. They came up to me, slimmed down this and that and said it could be your pro shoe and I was like “What? Shit is dope!”

You used to skate the vulcanized Janoski a lot – was it hard switching to the Dunk?

No, it is all about looks to me. If I can look down on my shoes and they look good I eventually be able to skate it. The Janoski doesn’t really have a tongue. I really hated it when my pant go over my tongue and I still do. So there is no tongue and a vulcanized sole – it is dope. For a while vulcanized soles where hurting my fee but I think I was wearing too small of a size. I also really liked the Bruins, they are dope. The liner on the side that holds your foot down is bit to tight. But yeah the Bruins are amazing and Dunk are amazing, too.

Do you break your shoes in or skate them right out of the box?

Yeah sometimes, depending how fresh they are. A dope colorway I got to walk around a little bit because they are so dope that I try to stunned. But not normally I just kind of bend them up with my hands a little bit and thew them on.

There are rumors that you skate at least eight or more hours a day. Is there a jot of truth in it?

I like to skate as much as I can. If I’m at home and I’ve like eight hours that are free then hell yeah I skate eight hours a day but if it is about to say that I skate this specific amount of time everyday I just have to say nah, I don’t time myself or doing anything like that. I just end up going skating and whatever happens just happens. You know there was this “go skate every damn day” campaign. And that sounds sick but sometimes it is really hard to skate every damn day. Sometimes you got stuff to do.  I didn’t come home for a month and I own a house and have to do all this stuff. I have all this mail, I didn’t see my family and I have a new cat. I have all these things, which are not super serious but they of course take time. My prior task is to arrange my life in a way that works because if I just skate all the time, I stress myself out cuz I push all this stuff aside. I am quite a lazy person. From this position realizing the point when I was a child to now. You know I am a professional skateboarder and I skate way less as I did as a child because there is so much more going in to everything else. It’s like traveling here – Day gone. Fucking Interviews instead of doing just skating. If I would be at home, I would just skate every fucking day. In term, I don’t skate as much as I did. And that’s pretty crazy being a professional skateboarder that skates less than before.

I saw you with some shopping bags at the cafe a couple minutes ago. So you did go shopping in Berlin?

Oh yeah! I went to that vintage store when I came here for that Fourstar trip and I just was walking around and kinda like checking out the area, bought some stuff. And this vintage store had some fuckin’ cool cloths. So I went in there and got like three sick ass jackets. For example this jeans jacket right here. And I get compliments on that shit all the time. And its comfortable and warm. Skating in jean is really good, too. You know what I mean? Because if I fall I’m not gonna cut my elbow or anything. Whenever I wear it I am like “That trip to Berlin was tight!” And now I just had to go back to buy some more!

You are wearing a BMW cap. Are you into German cars?

The first car I owned was a Honda Cort and my sister crashed it and I was like “Aight, what kind of car do I want?” I was skating with this old dude, Ben, in Philadelphia who works on BMW’s. And he had this full swaggin’ pick up turbo diesel, which is fuckin’ amazing! I was looking for a car and was like “Dude, I fuckin’ gonna buy this thing off from you! Name a prize and it is mine!” He did not want to sell it because he also is a BMW guy and knows that they are hard to find and all this shit. So I started researching them but then I found a BMW E 30 and if you see that thing you just think that it is sick as fuck! And I was in California, in Scuba’s house and we were looking around there and found an E 30 for sale with an E 36 M S 50 swapped into it for ten G’s. And I was like “Yo, thats me bro!”. That happened only ten minutes away from Scuba’s house.

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Thanks, Christoph

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Sizing

The Dorado Boost fits true to size.

Durability

The adidas Dorado Boost consists of 2 parts. However, the most important one is the outer upper that spans from toe to the heel. The durability of the model is good due to several reasons: The one piece upper had no seams, was made of a solid material that consisted of suede which left us a high quality impression. and both the laces and three stripe logo (fused on) were well protected from abrasion. All these parts are basic protectoral factors which sum up to a very impressive durability. Additionally, the sole also proved to be extremely durable during our weartest.

Cushioning

Adidas uses the same sole in the Dorado Boost as for the Boost ADV, with a main focus on cushioning in both models. The Boost technology consists of thousands of small thermoplastic polyurethane balls which provide exceptional impact absorption and compression rebound compared to the traditionally used EVA foam. The sole is begins quite thin in the toe cap area, and starts getting thicker in the midfoot area and ends with the heel area protected with a 1 – 1.2 centimeter thin Boost layer. As a result, the sole gets thicker the further you get to the middle and heel part of the shoe, which helps improve cushioning and creates an overall comfortable feel for the foot. In addition, the sockliner adds a well-suited cushioning effect. However, a weakness in this kind of sole construction is the lack of cushioning and impact support in the toe area. Although the Boost technology clearly shows its impact advantages for the heel area, the toe area itself was just too thin. As a result, to sum up, boardfeel was the victor over cushioning here.

Shape

The Dorado Boost ADV is cut close to your foot, especially in the mid foot area. However, a weakness was pinpointed in the toe area and heel area, both areas had a bit too much space. For the heel area, there wasn’t a good heel lock and since the the toe area had too much space it resulted in developing waves due to a lack of stability. With that said, the toe cap area is still pretty long and pointy, which ensures a great control over your flick for flip tricks.

Boardfeel and grip

Boardfeel is influenced by the thickness of the sole in the toe area. As you can see in the half cut picture, the sole is very thin in the frontal area and combined with incisions in the sole, the model results in excellent boardfeel and grip. The thinness of the sole also makes the sole very flexible so it can adapt to the board’s concave extremely well. Grip was very consistent during the whole time of the test, nearly comparable to vulcanized models without being to “gooey“.

Comfort and stability

Comfort of the Dorado Boost is only average. The weight itself leaves no positive nor negative impression, it lays somewhere in the middle of today’s cupsole shoes. The inner lining, however, is quite nice because there are no pressure spots. Ventilation is another factor that improves the comfort in a skate shoe and in this case, the Dorado Boost features three big ventilation holes in the inner side, replacing the actual stripes. As a result, the midfoot area’s breathability is great, but the heat and the moisture of the toe area has no ventilation holes to escape out of.

Stability is evaluated as ok. The shoe fits very close to the feet in the mid foot area and basically hugs the feet which adds to a secure and stable feeling. However, the shoe did not keep its shape so well in the toe area, where waves in the suede appeared.

Summary

The adidas Dorado Boost is a shoe that uses innovative sole technology to create a great balance between grip and boardfeel and cushioning in the heel area. Mediocre stability and fit in the toe area are balanced out by great durability.

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Check out the adidas Dorado Boost ARROW&BEAST

ARROW&BEAST adidas Dorado Boost

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