Now, éS have tried this whole “lightest skate shoe in the world” thing before, and I wasn’t convinced. How do you categorise a ‘skate shoe‘ and say it’s the lightest one? I mean, an obvious comparison would be Osiris D3’s vs. Vans Slip-Ons…. Well, you know what I mean.
The Breeze’s don’t actually feel much lighter than a shoe of similar size; I compared them to a current favourite amongst everyone, the HalfCab. Whilst maybe a tad lighter overall, what really is different is the éS feels a lot more ‘balanced’. It’s hard to explain, but basically it’s like BMW shifting stuff around in their cars to make sure it’s not too front heavy. All the components are there, but they’ve been placed somewhere else to keep the weight even. The Breeze is exactly like that.
The main thing I noticed was whilst the HalfCabs are very heavy in the soles, there is no weight at all on the Breeze. The soles are light and this makes flips so much easier. This is partly to do with Sole Tech’s excellent Flo2 technology, putting holes and perforations in to allow air through to ventilate your sweaty feet. It actually works too, no lie. You can feel cool air flowing into the shoe from the sole and sides.
The one downfall of this, and something I think the Californian designers didn’t think of when shipping this over to wet old Blighty. Puddles. Whilst also letting air in, they also do an incredible job of letting water in if you step in the slightest of puddles. Admittedly though, you wouldn’t be skating in the rain, so I can’t really complain. But it does mean that the éS Breeze is a ‘skate only’ kind of shoe, which is their only downfall but your advantage. Just make sure you check your local weather forecast before going out in these, pray for sun, because skating in blazing sunshine in these is a joy.
Visit www.esfootwear.com for more.
Moose