The Chronic Consumer

I’m not much of a fitness buff, but I do try to get in some brisk walking or light jogging at least every other day. Recently, I was in need of new shoes for my daily walks, so I started checking out some products. I’ve never owned athletic shoes from a company other than Nike, and since I’ve generally had good results from them, I decided to stick with the brand this time as well.

I don’t know the first thing about running shoes, so this review isn’t going to be useful to any hard-core runners out there. The only things I were looking at were: price (first and foremost), comfort, and style. After a few hours of shopping, I ended up purchasing the Nike Verve II for the following reasons.

Price: As I said, this was the first component I wanted to look at. I was aiming to keep my purchase under $50 and refused to even consider anything more expensive than that. There’s no way I could justify a more expensive shoe. As far as price goes, Nike shoes were by far the cheapest at the store I visited. This particular store also carried Reebok, Asics, New Balance, Puma, and Adidas, but those brands were all much more expensive.

I ended up paying under $30 for my Nike Verve II shoes — a pretty good bargain.

Comfort: The Nike Verve II is an extremely comfortable shoe. I’ve used these shoes four times since I purchased them last week, and haven’t had a single problem in terms of aching feet, blisters, or anything of the sort. (I walk or jog on regular concrete sidewalks.) The shoes are very lightweight and the soles are springy, yet supportive. I’m happy with the way they fit and feel when I’m wearing them.

Style: The Nike Verve II might not be the best-looking shoes on the rack, but they’re not bad. I saw some running shoes that were just plain ugly, but I think these are decent. The swish logo is small and unobtrusive, and I like the predominantly white-and-silver color scheme.

The Verdict: The Nike Verve II is a great shoe for casual joggers. You won’t see anyone running a marathon in these things, but at less than $30 you can’t go wrong. I’m looking to get one year of service out of the shoes. If they hold up that long, I’ll buy another pair next year!

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