Backstory:
TITLE probably ordered these thinking, "Hey, look at how cheap we can get some decent Adidas trainers!" Once the first shipment was in, they opened the box and fainted.
I ordered these the first week they were released, and got them quickly, as TITLE seems prone to do. The first thing I found out about these shoes is that Adidas sizes are one below the norm. So I exchanged them (pretty painless) and finally got to use them.
Quick review:
These are shoes. They go on feet. To compare them, I'll be using TITLE low-tops.
First off, I can't recommend the TITLE shoes: mine never have fit properly on the right foot. TITLE shoes, like other boxing and wrestling shoes are made of flexible or thin nylon, so they don't give you much-if-any side support. The Adidas Extero shoes have a more traditional tennis shoe-like quality about their construction. The insides of the shoe are pleasantly soft, but don't have a lot of give: they hug the feet fairly well.
As mentioned, these shoes are ugly. Like, VERY ugly. I'll get into how I fixed that.
You can see the treads in the picture (hopefully) and that's a pretty good example of the kind of traction you get. I had no problem twisting for my hooks on hardwood or carpeted floors.
The closure system consists of three velcro straps, with an eyelet hook, and an unusual double-sided velcro wing at the top of the tongue. This is probably the worst part of the shoe ASIDE from the awful green plastic parts. They work fairly well, but they don't offer grip at the proper angles. If the straps crossed at 45 degrees, or came from both sides, this might work better. As it is, you can tell where the straps are while you wear these shoes, and it creates some minor pockets where the shoes just aren't hugging your feet like they do in most other places.
Original, hideous Adidas Extero shoes, info can be found
here
Finished Shoes
Grip/Soles
Functionality, these shoes get something like a 7.5-8 from me. They don't have any serious flaws, but they don't have any real strengths either.
Looks get a 2. Maybe a 4. While most of the shoe looks okay, though somewhat bland, the choice of some oddball late 70s electric green-yellow makes no sense to me. Maybe you wrestlers like crazy things? Either way, my solution sounds retarded, but it works fairly well. The plastic used on these shoes has an odd, porous slotted texture to it. This means it holds color from ink sources fairly well. I tried a few things: some model paint I have, some similar ink color, and the one that worked very well and was the easiest to deal with, sharpie marker ink. The ink doesn't rub off, but it does smell pretty strong. It's probable that consistent use, or liquids, will remove some of the color. Thankfully though, that stuff is cheap, so I can always do touchups.
So these shoes are wicked cheap on TITLE, and they're functional. If you don't mind how they look, or you like to do some crafts on your gear, I recommend you pick some up.
