Nike 3.0 v4 women's shoe review

Almost 29 weeks pregnant!! As of right now I have gained 16 lbs of baby love. This is in fact my favorite non winter running outfit. I nabbed these old navy tights at the thrift store and I try to live in them as much as possible. They are tight but don't squeeze my waist at all and never ride up or down. I'd buy a million pairs if I could. My shirt has 2 shoes and says "sole mates" :) It also is very well used. Perfect outfit for the 61 degrees it is outside on Decemeber 3rd!!! 

NEW SHOES!! 

I ordered these shoes last week. I don't know if it was for black Friday or what but I got a great deal on them from www.runningwarehouse.com which is why I ultimately chose Nike's. I didn't have any intentions of buying Nike's, but I read some great reviews about them and with the deal I decided to go for it. These are the Nike 3.0 v4 shoes. 

Baby bump photo bomb!

If you take a gander at the hop of these shoes you may notice that there is no tongue. Well, there is a tongue, but you can't move it. It is sewn into the shoe. The entire shoes is one layer. "Seamless" in a sense, very similar to a sock. I read a lot of reviews that said people wore these without socks, I see why. 

First impression of the shoes:

These shoes look fake. Are Nike's or Fike's? I checked the label again, they sure look like Nike's. I have been running in Brook's pure flows for a while now and they, like many other shoes, have a mesh exterior for breath-ability. These shoes do not. They are flush. The swoosh is flush, all the green crossy things are flush and like I said the tongue is flush. I don't know terms, I should research them more, but the entire exterior of this shoe is a very thin, rubber plasticy clothly material. This does not scream breathability to me. It does scream sockless, which intrigued me. Right off the bat... these shoes made me nervous. 

This shoe is very light. 5.8 oz for a size 8. LOVE me a light shoe. 

At first impression:

I LOVED the soles of these shoes. They have a 3mm drop and the whole sole looks like it was built, and then sliced into cubes like a bloomin' onion. This made the shoe VERY flexible. The whole sole is flat, with a small groove along the center in the middle half. The only thing that is changed up is the black squares at the lateral top and medial bottom. They are a little harder, and stick out a little further for the purpose of encouraging an even gait.

I put them on...

I logged a 5.13 mile run on the streets/path. 

I put on some socks and then tried to put on the shoe, they wouldn't go over the socks. There was no way that these shoes could be worn with socks. I ordered a 7.5, I wouldn't have gone any higher, so I took my socks off and ran sockless. The reason they wouldn't go over was because you cannot expand the shoe at all due to the sewn in tongue. I wanted to try these sock-less anyways, so I had no choice. The fit felt good. 

As I started running....

I logged a 5.13 mile run on the streets/path. 

The first mile was great. I LOVED, and still love, the soles of these shoes. I believe I have no pronation issues, but I could slightly feel the black squares I had mentioned early, and I liked having them there. I felt very "one with the ground". I don't know if it was because I had no socks on, but these shoes felt thinner then my PureFlows, much more of a minimalist feel. (I have not run in "true" minimalist shoes yet though). I could feel the squares and the flexibility of them on the road. This also made it feel much more minimalist. I enjoyed this a lot. 

Foot strike:

I HIGHLY recommend you have a confident midfoot strike when you move into these shoes. My Pure Flows were awesome for perfecting my gait because they were light, but have the cushioning I wanted just in case. These shoes do have some padding in the back, but I feel pain would ensue if you used it. These are not meant to have a heal strike in my opinion. I'm a huge fan of the midfoot, and these were perfect for it. 

Blisters??

Yes,  this is what my right foot (only right) looked like after. I felt the one under my toe at around mile 1.5. I actually stopped after 2 and took my shoe off to figure out what the problem was. Where the shoe laces up there is a harder more plasticy part, but there is also a cloth covering to protect your foot from rubbing against this. It is sealed nicely at the opening of the shoe, but that cloth flap is open at the toe box. I don't know if I had put it on poorly or what, but that flap was not covering that plastic and it rub a dub dubbed. Oww. I don't see this as an issue if I had socks on, but without socks it sucks. I don't know why they wouldn't have sewn this flap down at the toe box as well. That would have been great!! Side blisters are from a very sweaty foot rubbing against a sockless shoe and I started to feel them around mile 3. I don't know how I feel about this yet. I'll make no assumptions right off the bat cause I have heard of people that did not have this problem when running in them. 

My UGLY right foot. My right foot is much uglier then my left. It wears down differently then my left and is the only foot that blisters. Weird. 

Overall I give these shoes a 7 out of 10. Everything about them is great except the blisters. If I can get those to go away I give these shoes a 9. If I can't and that piece keeps rubbing my foot, I give them a 0 and will return them. I hope I don't have to!!