SIZING

The DC Metric S fits true to size.

DURABILITY

They weren’t lying. The Metric S showed exceptional durability in the 10 hour wear test. When observing the upper, it’s evident they put a lot of thought into the design. The first layer is a DC’s Super Suede material, and underneath the suede there’s two more layers of protection, including a hot melt underlay and then a mesh material. After 10 hours of skating, abrasion is minimal and hardly noticeable on the upper. The hot melt layer below the suede assures an even longer lifespan once the suede would eventually be worn down. Two positive impacts that prolonged the lifespan of the shoe were the lace protection and strap, which effectively protected the collar lining from ripping as well.

The reason for the low abrasion on the upper are the thick and rigid sidewalls of the sole. This area showed most signs of wear and worked as a first layer of defense that the griptape hit first. Surprisingly, the bottom sole didn’t show any areas of wear and the thread pattern was in good condition for a test duration of 10 hours, while sustaining its grip.

CUSHIONING

The Metric S provided also good cushioning in the heel area. As can be seen in the cross section cut, there is a height difference between the front and heel. The first third of the shoe doesn’t feature any major foam pieces – it only consists of the insole, a strobel board with a thin EVA layer and the white outsole. Within the midfoot and heel area, there’s a wedge shaped foam inlay (which is brown and can be also seen looking at the shoe from the side) which increases the sole’s thickness. This construction enables it to spread forces evenly throughout and absorb even tougher impacts that occur in the heel region. When bailing with impact to the forefoot, the contact is very direct and can be unpleasant, but it’s an unavoidable compromise, in favor of boardfeel.

SHAPE

The Metric S features a rather puffy silhouette, with the widest area around the midfoot area. The upper is very much embedded in the high outsole (in white) and the foam inlay. The toebox tapers to a nice pointy peak and offers outstanding flick and control when doing flip-tricks.

BOARDFEELI&IGRIP

Since the sole was quite thin in the forefoot area, this lead to sole adapting and forming better to the concave of the board and led to a more direct contact between the foot and the board. The Metric S had good boardfeel for a cupsole but the board feel can’t be compared to vulcanized soles.

Similar to boardfeel, the grip needed a couple sessions to fully shine. The outsole was quite thick, so a few hours of skating were needed until the sole became more flexible and the shoe started to develop a solid grip.

COMFORTI&ISTABILITY

When you first look at the shoe, you wouldn’t imagine an extremely comfortable fit. But after putting them on, the shoe was really lightweight and the padding helped create a soft feeling around the ankle and foot. One point to mention, the breathability of the shoe was weak. Despite using a lot of mesh material for breathability, a look to the cross-section pictures show that the inner lining blocks hot air from even leaving the shoe, so your feet essentially sit in a convection oven.

The heel reinforcements in combination with the strap do provide support and fits snugly with the feet. The whole heel is slightly bent towards the peak of the shoe and the high sidewall of the outsole creates a great heel lock. The upper with its multi material layers kept its stiffness and secure feeling throughout our 10 hour test.

SUMMARY

We were hyped on getting a taste of DC’s newest product, the Metric S. The shoe was solid; it performed great in terms of durability, stability and also boardfeel, especially for a really stable cupsole model. The only thing that could be improved would be better breathability, to maximize the comfort of the shoe.

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Sizing

The Cons Metric CLS runs a half size big, would recommend going a half size down than what you usually wear.

Durability

If there was one thing that was the most impressive throughout the whole weartest, it would be the durability of the Metric CLS. The shoe features a one piece upper made of high quality suede that showed zero holes after the test period. The whole one-piece toe cap proved to be every effective as there were no seams to be ripped in the line of fire. Moreover, after the 10 hr weartest, the outsole rubbed out before the toe-cap which was a testament to the durable quality of suede being used for this model. One impressive feature was also the durability of the shoelaces that Cons originally includes with the purchase of the shoe; the original shoelaces that are included have a bit of a wax layer that helps a bit to prevent the shoelaces from ripping too fast. In our case, the shoelaces as well as the upper not only lasted our 10-hr weartest, but definitely had enough vitality to last for another 10 hr.

Cushioning

Cushioning is one of the three technical elements Cons is pushing in this CLS model, highlighting the advantages of a dual density construction in the midsole when it comes to absorbing medium to high impacts as well as improving the stability of a shoe. While most skate models use the EVA foam for it’s lightweight and flexibility features, Cons has adapted it’s midsole with two different density foams injected with Nike’s Phylon performance foam that have a similar composition as Nike SB’s lunarlon foam. In high impact skating when you’re jumping down 6 stairs and up, your ankles absorb the heavy impact and the awkward movements with different bails can distribute the weight unevenly to cause over-pronation, where your ankles tend to lean inwards. Con’s midsole and stable heel lock work together and almost correct your feet’s posture to prevent the over-pronation that skaters with flat feet may often face when jumping down these high impact stairs and gaps. The cushioning of this model was great, any heel bruises that would have happened were well prevented.

Shape

Throughout the 10 hour weartest, the Cons Metric CLS held its shape up very well. The one piece suede toe cap held it’s structure and offered no loose seams for the toe box to lose its shape from skating. More impressive was the heel of the shoe, which was reinforced with a strong plastic shell that held up the heel’s structure extremely well, inadvertently increasing the lifespan of the shoe’s stability. Often, when your feet get sweaty from skating, the shoe absorbs moisture and the shape of the shoe changes significantly, losing much of it’s structure and stability. However, with this shoe, despite only average breathability, the shoe’s shape and structure was very well maintained and almost showed no signs of change over the first few sessions.

Boardfeel and grip

The boardfeel of this shoe was only average. Although Cons stresses that their midsole construction allows a cupsole model to have a similar boardfeel as a vulcanized model, the cushioning elements still overpowered the boardfeel and felt relatively thick. Initially, grip was not as grippy as we would have thought, but gradually improved with more skating. An added feature on the shoe is a tread pattern of small dots where the kickflip and ollie hole is, which help to increase the traction of the shoe and directs a lot of the abrasion towards the traction pattern instead of the actual suede. Moreover, the outsole of the shoe features directionally shaped edges that gives the outsole more traction; different tricks require different parts of abrasion on the outsole, the edges prolong the lifespan and efficiency of the outsole’s grip and traction. Essentially, grip got better as the shoe broke in, but right out of the box the grip is only average. The grip of the sole however, was very nice and had zero blow out spots.

Comfort and stability

Comfort was a drawback in terms of the shoe’s overall construction. Right out of the box, the shoe feels extremely stiff, and not very flexible. With time, this improves and after our 10 hour weartest, the shoe felt like it was finally broken into. Breathability was also only average, but thankfully, the Metric CLS’ tongue was slimmed down to a very breathable mesh panel and offered heat and moisture to escape through this panel. Another feature of the tongue that added to the comfort and stability of the shoe was its tongue centering straps that eventually molded into a sock-like fabric which helped hold the shoe and the tongue in place while skating. The toecap however, trapped a lot of heat but the structure of the toe-cap was not affected. Overall, the shoe was also quite light, which was very impressive given the amount of reinforcement used on the heel and the dual density cushioning midsole. Stability of the shoe was great. As aforementioned, the shoe’s reinforced heel provided amazing structure and the inside heel lock was outfitted with some padding to hold your heel in place. Moreover, it was impossible to take the midsole out of the shoe, so there was no worry for slippage. This, combined with the tongue centering straps allowed a very secure and stable feeling when skating with the Metric CLS.

Summary

The first model to come out of the CLS technical platform is an exciting new technical shoe to be added in Cons’ product line. The shoe impresses with it’s prolonged durability, exceptional stability and overall dual density cushioning. But with that said, the model sacrifices a bit of comfort and boardfeel.

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