05 May 2009

Mail Call - Review to follow

Woohoo, just checked my mail (snail mail) and found these:

Please pardon the terrible picture - this is just a quick cell phone shot and is quite awful.

Xtenex laces are elastic laces, similar to Yankz and Speedlaces. I've used both Yankz and Speedlaces in the past, but have never been a big fan. They're quicker in transition, but using them for long runs have caused problems for my feet. I don't know if it is because my feet are munchkin size (I wear 5's.. and my scrap non-running tennis shoes are 3.5's in kids..) with high arches and almost, but not quite wide, but it always seems that they become too loose on the top of my foot, and tighten up towards the toe box. Xtenex takes a different approach... these little "knots" hole the laces exactly how you want them. You can only collapse the knots by pulling on both sides of the knot. In theory, they should stay better and not tighten, because the knots don't pass through the eyelets on the shoes. I've been asked to give this complimentary pair a review, and I'll be reporting back as I try them out. I plan on running in them tonight, and if it goes well, I might even race in them this weekend at Kinetic.

2 comments:

Rainmaker said...

Interesting. Looking forward to hearing how these work out, since I managed to somehow slice a shoelace in half last week.

Anonymous said...

I can't wait to hear this review. I have plantar fasciitis so I find that it hurts less if I spend the time to lace my trainers "just so"...which really makes for a long transition time. I've got some Yankz at the moment, and so far they have been fine...but I still spend more time than I want getting them at the right tension.

Alaina