Nike Free Metcon 3 Review
In this video we look at the brand new Nike Free Metcon 3.
It’s April 2020, and I’m in quarantine, but I got a new pair, and I can’t wait to test them and share my thoughts with you!
I love shoes, and anyone that knows me knows that I believe there is the best shoe for every activity. And training is no exception. Only I like to break it down even further into the best shoe for the specific movements in the workout. Heavy lifting, bodyweight movements, a mix of gymnastics and squatting, running and on and on. I decide what shoe I’m going to wear based on what combinations of movements are in the workout, and the Nike Metcon Free’s are my favorite shoes for bodyweight, gymnastics, speed-focused exercises.
Here are the main things we are going to be looking at in the Nike Free Metcon 3s
These have taken the best parts of the Metcon Frees and combined them with the heel concept of the Metcon 5s. The result is incredibly comfortable that doesn’t sacrifice stability and exceeds expectations.
The Nike free foam is from the midfoot to the font with a nice little toe guard in the front. It is soft, flexible, and very comfortable.
One of the first things you notice when you look at these is the heal. It’s so much larger and more pronounced than the other generations. It looks like they took the wide base of the Metcon 5s, which I love, and ran with it!
I was skeptical when I first opened them, but as soon as I put them on, I immediately noticed how stable they were. And it’s even more noticeable when you start loading them with weight! Your heel is very secure, more on that later, and the wide base translates to more area on the ground and gives you that feeling you get when you are wearing lifters. No, they are not lifters! But that feeling of being attached to the ground is one of the first things I noticed when I loaded up the barbell.
The uppers are made out of incredibly comfortable and flexible mesh. Nike claims that it is also very durable, but we’ll see.
I think, for the most part, the real danger to Metcon Free uppers is during rope climbs. For that reason, I rarely do rope climbs in mine. I use my 4s or 5s mostly for that.
That being said, one of my training buddies wears his first-generation Free’s for rope climbs all the time, and there has been no visible wear on them, which really surprised me. Time will tell one these, but one thing I’ll note about the outsole is the lack the hand plastic piece in the arch that the earlier generations have, so my guess is rope climbs would chew these soles up.
The lacing system is similar to what we saw in the first generation of free Metcons. Not a lot of changes there. The laces themselves are round and feel better than the laces from the 5s and 4s, and I think people will have less trouble with them coming untied.
These have a very unique heel. Unlike the first generation, they do not have the plastic heel wrapping around the hill. Instead, they have support in the material itself and a special padded heel cup on the inside. The padded heel cup makes them incredibly comfortable and adds extra security for your heel and keeps there from being any heel slip.
I absolutely love this new feature, and I have not seen it on any other training shoes.
The toe box is not wide by any means. It’s in keeping with the other generations and has a form-fitting front. I personally like my training shoes to fit my foot well, especially if I’m doing box jumps, shuttle sprints, or anything else like that. I want to feel secure in my shoes. If I’m going for endurance, then yes, of course, I’ll go for a bigger toe box and more space.
I think these new Metcon Frees are going to be a great training shoes for anyone doing Crossfit or in everyone’s case right now, working out at home and are wanting an incredibly comfortable shoe.
They are great for speed and body weight movements but are also very stable when you grab a heavy barbell.
I’m about to do Cindy, a 20 min amrap of pull-ups pushups and squats and then later this week I’m going to do the first event of the Crossfit Support You Box event which is squats, pushups and dumbbell snatches and I am definitely going to be wearing these.
I don’t think these are going to be great shoes for running long distances because of the rigidity in the heal but for the short distance that most of us do in our Box these will be perfect.
These would be a killer shoe to do Murph in!
In summary, the Metcon 5s are my favorite training shoes of all time but I am very very impressed by these and if you’re looking for something on the lighter, softer side of the training shoe spectrum, you definitely need to give these a try!