SIZING

The Nike SB BLZR Court fits true to size.

DURABILITY

The Nike SB BLZR Court features design elements that are proven to increase the durability of a shoe but also elements that usually reduce the durability. First of all, the dominant reinforcement piece that stretches from the midfoot to the forefoot section is a typical Ollie-pad and is a tried and true tactic that helps to increase the durability. However, using canvas as a choice for the upper material, is usually a risk when it comes to the durability. The canvas showed signs of wear in the toe area (kickflip-zone) and at the stitching area connecting the sidewall element with the toe piece. The signs of wear are noticeable but not severe, especially since there is another toe reinforcement layer under the canvas. Lastly, durability of a shoe is highly dependent on the outsole. After our weartest, the side areas of the outsole helped to protect the toe area and the durability was really good. All in all, the BLZR Court has an overall above average durability with the most wear concentrated within the toe area (kickflip-zone).

CUSHIONING

The cushioning of the BLZR Court was ok; the insole is thin and minimal, which sacrificed cushioning in exchange for boardfeel. This was especially the case in the first third toe area, where the sole was the thinnest. In the second third medial area, the cushioning got a bit thicker but not by much; the impact from 5-8 stairs was still fairly absorbed by the insole. The area with the most amount of cushioning was the heel area, where the midsole had a honey comb construction that helped absorb and disperse the impact from landings evenly. In the end, it was clear that the focus of the BLZR Court was to offer a minimally padded shoe that felt great on the feet and had excellent boardfeel.

SHAPE

The shape and silhouette of the BLZR Court was refreshing. A canvas model without many inner supporting elements tends to look out of shape, but once we tried them on foot, the flexible upper material and the narrow upper patterns hug the foot and creates its tailored shape. The shoe is designed to have a clean cut from heel to toe. The model runs parallel from the heel over the midfoot section and starts narrowing in the toe area to end in a nice round shape.

BOARDFEELI&IGRIP

As a vulcanized model, the BLZR Court has a heavy emphasis on boardfeel. Although cushioning is important, Nike SB made sure to not over do the shoe with cushioning elements in order to retain the original boardfeel of a Blazer model, if not making it better. The shoe has a thin sole and its simplicity helps to create enough flexibility so that the feet feel extremely close to the foot. As for grip, the shoe has a traditional outsole thread pattern which proved not only to have excellent grip but also showed good durability. All in all, boardfeel and grip of the BLZR Court was brilliant.

COMFORTI&ISTABILITY

The Nike SB Blazer has partly redefined the standard with regards to the balance between comfort and stability in a modern skate shoe, so it was interesting to see how the BLZR Court and it’s updated features would perform. The main influencers of comfort are weight, breathability and the inner construction. The BLZR Court is extremely lightweight due to its simplicity; both the canvas upper material and the stripped down padding make it super light. In addition, the simple elements of the shoe ensure a basic inner construction which reduces the risk of pressure points. Breathability was average, no major advantages or disadvantages were noticeable. The stability of the shoe was fair; the model wasn’t designed to be exceptional in stability, but rather focused more on the slim shape and excellent boardfeel and grip. Nevertheless, the lack of padding and the canvas materials are significantly reducing the stability, but the slim pattern creates snug foot feeling which in turn, creates a stable feeling. It was noticeable that some elements limited good stability and some elements increased the stability, so overall, we rate the overall stability as average.

SUMMARY

The BLZR Court is a very simplistic and comfortable model that doesn’t disappoint in its exceptional boardfeel and grip. The durability showed good performance, especially for a canvas model. With that said, the stability and cushioning are missing some points but it is important to mention that these elements were not the intended focus of the shoe. The legend of the BLZR continues on!

The post Nike SB BLZR Court appeared first on Weartested - detailed skate shoe reviews.

Meeting point was Amsterdam’s finest skateshop – BenG. The whole shop was decorated with Grant Taylor’s Blazer and made a good impression of what the shoe is about.

d

The bus ride to the skatepark took about 20 minutes. On the bus, we got a presentation of the shoe with an explanation of the features and design inspirations. To sum up, the Blazer GT is a modern classic skate shoe.

d

After arriving at the skatepark, Nike provided everyone a pair of the GT Blazer.

d

The skatepark is private-owned. Ten friends rented a warehouse in an industrial area a bit outside of Amsterdam and built a skatepark with some chill out areas. After three weeks of hard work the park has been finished only two days before the weartest and so we were able to skate a brand new private skatepark for one time only.

s

They built up a projector showing a best-of edit from Grant Taylors parts over the last years. So a skate break could be used for watching tricks from his Chronicles, Alien Workshop and Debacle parts. In addition, there was small Grant Taylor exhibition.

S

Food and drinks were served all evening. A special hotdog stand from Holland had one of the best hotdogs I have ever tried – also approved by Tim Zom.

S

The crowd watching the skating and Grant Taylor’s parts. Nike SB teamriders like Youness Amrani, Oskar Rozenberg, Tim Zom, Wieger van Wageningen and Fernando Bramsmark added some more flavor to the session.

s

First feedback of the shoe:

• Very grippy sole – a balanced mix between boardfeel and grip.

• Slimmed down form, the shoe fits closer to the feet compared to the original SB Blazer.

• The swoosh is positioned more towards the heel area. It helps to protect the swoosh from detaching.

• Breathability and weight are still average.

• All in all the shoe makes a solid impression, it has a good craftsmanship and I definitely an improvement of the original SB Blazer!

S

All in all it was a great evening with a nice after party at some good bars in Amsterdam. Thanks to Nike SB for the invitation, the shoe and a great weekend!

The post Nike SB Blazer Low Grant Taylor weartest appeared first on Weartested - detailed skate shoe reviews.

VANS Stage 4:

One of the oldest -if not the oldest- skate shoe brands out there surprised after years of sticking to the classics with a technical but still subtle model. The Stage 4 features the new “wafflecup” sole, an almost one-piece upper and new sunken eyelets.

Converse KA1 vulcanised:

Cons has an equal approach as Vans: stick to the classics and keep it low-tech. Again, this brand tries something new in 2012 with a new vulcanised sole unit. Same pattern, different rubber mixture for more grip and a bright, baby-blue color. One of the first models to adopt it is the KA1 vulc, as seen in the picture (please excuse the bad quality…). Furthermore, the KA1, Kenny Andersons original model, has been redone and features an improved cupsole in fall 2012.

adidas Lucas Puig:

adidas skateboarding presented itself stronger than ever: bigger booth, classic as well as innovative models, nice colorways and always the best craftmanship. The highly anticipated Lukas Puig promodel didn’t dissapoint in person. I don’t want to reveal too many of the technical features right now, but it is light and thin, but still offers support…and the never-seen-before toebox design looks great and unique.

Lakai Marc:

Lakai didn’t disappoint either. It is one of the last true “core” skate shoe companies which has been brave enough to believe in cupsoles since years. Their unique and time-proven XLK sole unit spreads trough the whole collection now. The team loves it, so the models have it, it’s that simple. Many styles are offered in two options now, vulcanised or XLK-cupsole. Newest member of the XLK-family is the Pico. Pictured above is one of the few remaining, but still exciting vulc models, the “Marc”, which has to be seen in person to be fully appreciated.

Nike Blazer:

Picture: www.dunkbar.de

Nike will fuse the Nike SB and 6.0 programs into one in 2012. The first hints were already visible at Bright. Nevertheless, they overall impression of their booth was: they will continue to make very good skate shoes. Lunarlon, which has been introduced with the Koston 1, will spread into more and more models and the Blazer, one of the classics, got redone, too. It features now a toe stiching resembling the original Blazer design with the toe bumper, the vulc sole seems slightly thinner and ,one of the best features, the collar features now a very soft and stretchable, achilles tendon-friendly, heel panel, as seen in grey in the pictures (to the left).

Habitat Austyn Gilette:

Since no pictures leaked so far of this new model and since it is not an “everyday”-design, we will stick with a brief description of it for now. It features a sole unit similar to the Garcia and is overall boat-shoe inspired. At the same time it doesn’t look like a Janoski or another Vans Chukka low at all…a very unique design. It has 3 lace holes and the lacing is pushed far towards the heel, rounded up with a sidepannel design that reminds of the OG Emerica Johnson.

All in all skate shoe design is more brave again in 2012 compared to the last few years. Companies try again to be different, innovative and exciting, which we appreciate a lot.

The post a preview of 2012 appeared first on Weartested - detailed skate shoe reviews.

The PDF file: blazer-sb-review-v2

The post Nike SB Blazer appeared first on Weartested - detailed skate shoe reviews.