hey what's up Zach here and I'm at the roller coaster capital of the world here Cedar Point and I have just spent the last 48 hours in the Nike motiva and here are all the things I have learned about them that you need to know before you decide if you're going to buy them or not here we go now remember the Nike motiva is marketed as primarily a walking shoe or a casual lifestyle shoe however on their website they do say that you can take this out jogging um there are a lot of pitfalls that especially with rocker construction shoes especially with the non- regular mid and outsole however the first thing I noticed about these that really kind of set them apart from some other especially walking shoes is the uppers and the biggest thing you got to know about the uppers of the motiva is just how comfortable they are for sure in terms of Nike's running lineup this year these have been the most comfortable uppers by far I have put on that is including the Invincible run 3es and think I like most about the uppers is just how buttery they feel there's really no Breakin with these whatsoever and the The Weave is just a little bit more elastic a little bit more forgiving on these however because the tongue is so aggressively gusseted in the mivas you still feel like you've got a lot of containment in the uppers now the lace line is reinforced with plastic going all the way up you do get a runner knot in these cuz remember Nike says you can jog in them I will say in terms of lock down they feel a lot like the Invincible run three and just the shape of the uppers in general feel a lot like the Invincible run three I really like that the lace line does have a little bit of a garage that goes through the tongue on these a lot of times these running shoe companies will not put anything that will hold the tongue and the lace line together and number one what that does is that keeps the tongue straight on your foot so it doesn't start diving medial or lateral on your foot and start to annoy you but also it just makes the lock down a little better CU everything is more uniform and if you look at the breathability test on these I just did the airflow map on them they did heat up 105.8 de then cooled down another 57.2 de but if you look at that airflow map of them you do actually get a decent amount of breathing here in the very distal tip of the forefoot that knit does allow some air flow through there it's just not a really rapid air flow so if you're walking in these and not someone using them to run you're not going to heat them up fast enough you're not going to get the opportunity to heat them up fast enough I should say it's because the uppers are so light and accommodating I I really think you know even though they did heat up over 100° I still think ah I still think that'd be just fine especially for walking the only thing you got to watch out for when you have that buttery of an upper is if you look at the upper durability test 10 seconds highest crit sandpaper yeah the bird does start to make a pretty decent impression on these however remember these are walking shoes are not meant to be running through thick brush I will say though to blunt containment I would have liked these to have just a little bit more foxing on the uppers a little bit more reinforcement just because like I said the non-uniform mid and outsole on these that is where you're going to start to get into the are you going to buy them or not and I think that does kind of involve the uppers but we'll talk about that once we get into the mid out soole and getting into the midsole tear down this is what I was most interested in mainly because you know Nike markets these Pistons they have that are made of their midsole foam kind of wanted to see what they looked like now if you look at the motiva on the midsole tear down you'll notice there's not much going on here this is an entire bed of kushon 3.0 and I actually got a really good look at it under the microscope because there is a little bit of an imperfection in the foam so you can see kind of how cavernous that kushon 3.0 is and then when you see the more uniform portion of it on the mic MOS scope you see kind of how it looks almost a little more plasticky than kushon did that that that's pretty interesting kind of showing you where uh that foam is going from the first iteration of it now here to the latest iteration of it now the one thing you'll notice is there is no shank on the Motivo which I think is a little bit of an issue because the kushlan line of Foams are so soft the other thing you'll notice is the rocker in these is really far posterior kind of like the kenwok 400 which was another rocker sold shoe I reviewed earlier this year now the thing with the KE is is that they have a nylon shank that is topl loaded that keeps them really springy and really makes the shoes move like locomotive Wheels whereas the motiva you kind of sink into the heel and then that rocker just kind of pumps your arch up right and so as the shoe is new or if you are a very lightweight person that rocker is going to work very gently and very nice if you're a heavier person you could just sink right into the foam here in the heel and then that could lead to other issues like heel pain Achilles pain things like that so I think it really depends on what kind of body habitus you are kind of what you already have going on and kind of what your doctor says if these are going to be right for you which we'll get into in the fifth section but suffice to say unlike some rockers that are meant to be like I said like a locomotive wheel they're meant to kind of be I know King calls it their constant curve whereas in Nike cases are meant more for you to sink into now because that rocker is so far poster these are going to be a lot more stable than some other rocker sold shoes where it's more distal are more towards the for foot of the shoe so you still have a decent Landing Pad here on your for foot kind of give a little more tactile sensation the only thing is is those you know those Pistons they talk about really they're just undulations in the foam right in strategic areas so those actually got compressed for me after an hour or two right cuz I'm a heavier dude so you know as I'm coming down them that kushon just starts to bottom so I noticed at first those Pistons um or you know those undulations I should say and they they weren't the most stable things on the Planet the ones on the lateral side did give you just a little bit of like almost like a blocker right so when you came down and you were loading laterally as you walk like a Walker's gate you load lateral then you push off medial I noticed that the loading lateral was just a little bit more springy right so your step was just a little bit more of an O to it but then after an hour that just all went away so I'd say if you want that action you better be a lighter Walker or Runner uh otherwise like I said this is going to more compress down to more of a uniform Sole and that rocker is going to become just more of an elevated arch for you over time if you look at that kushon 3.0 on the bounce height test got 30 cm in the heel 36 in the 4ot I think the reason it didn't do so well in the heels because it is a rocker so you have to move the shoe back as you put the ball bearing down in it so you're not getting you know the flat sold shoes right you can utilize you know the ground reactive forces where in this you can't so you know kushon 3.0 has has a decent amount of Bounce for just how soft and shock absorbing it is it is still more of a primarily shock absorbing foam in my opinion but still pretty decent for what it is but two of the most important features of the midsole actually come in the periphery of it number one is just how wide the heel is on these these almost look like I said the Invincible run 3es like I said about the uppers but it same in the midsole it does have a really big Landing Pad there on the heel cuz most of walking remember you start in a heel strike unlike a lot of Runners which go midfoot or 4 foot striking so with these they really want you to have a nice wide stable base which I really did appreciate especially with a shoe with a rocker that can get a little bit more unstable than some others the other thing is you can see this giant cut out here on the lateral side that is to allow for more uniform compression of the foam and on the medial side it's just a little bit more bulged out and that's just to give it a little bit more oomph when you're coming down on the medial side of your foot for your push off so really everything about this foam setup is to allow the kushon 3.0 to compress in a way that's going to be more comfortable for you during a walking gate and getting into the outsole tread this is just a Rippling wave pattern that starts here in the medial heel and goes up into the junction of the mid and 4 foot then you have a block pattern in the heel as well as in the forefoot this is pretty nice the transition step so well and these waves kind of almost mimic you know how the shoe is going to be moving plus you got the pretty decent break points in the heel and in the forefoot so transition step is is pretty darn easy in the motiva the one thing is is the rubber is very thin and if you look at the outso durability test 10-sec High grid sandpaper the Burr almost gets down to the extent of the tread depth so like I said these are meant for an easier transition step they're meant for a smoother gate so you shouldn't be producing as much friction in these as you would maybe a standard running shoe so I think Nike is banking on the fact that these are going to be more biomechanically efficient to produce a little bit more durability versus the rubber compound itself and if you look at the speed ratio of the motiva comes in at a 2.67 which isn't terrible it's not nearly what Nike's better running shoes come in at remember these are walking shoes and the efficiency or I should say the quote unquote speed you get from these should be in how fluid they get from one step to the next the fit of the motiva though was something I really appreciated being in them for the last 48 hours especially pounding pavement for that long um narrow medium wide foot and just go true to size if you are really narrow especially if you don't have a super long foot they can go down a half size on these because of how elastic the uppers are and in terms of the snake bitten foot these really do have a lot of caveat to them because you number one if you have very stiff ankles if you're someone that really can't move your ankle very well these are going to take a lot of pressure off that and do a lot of the dors of and planer flexion for you so that's a really good use case of these H if you're somebody that has a lot of stiffness let's say in the Achilles tendon these are going to almost make that more stiff because they don't allow you to go through a natural range of motion with them so if you're someone prone to that then you might just want to stick with something with more of a standard sole because over time uh you might notice that that gets more stiff when you're in a regular shoe now if you're somebody with heel pain ball of foot pain it kind of is deal choice you really probably should be Consulting with a doctor before you get into a rocker sold shoe because some people are going to like especially the Motivo with the kushon 3.0 some people are going to like sinking into that having all that plush foam to come down on whereas others it's going to be too much it's going to be too soft especially with the rocker pushing you forward with that so there really is no one siiz fits all to the motiva I will just say that an orthotic in these is going to help keep it more of a stiff rocker but like I said that's going to make your foot a little more stiff or let's say you're a chronic ankle sprayer the fact that they're a rocker as well as a non-uniform sole these are just going to be a little bit unstable for you I probably wouldn't recommend these if you are someone in that category but if you are somebody with ball of foot pain they're going to take a ton of pressure off of the ball of your foot someone that's coming back from stress fracture and Aroma things like that these are going to be really nice because they Center all of the pressure kind of right below the ankle and into that where that rocker is kind of a little bit more midfoot to posterior midfoot and heel I think in terms of the primary foot conditions that you know these treat the best it is going to be more ankle arthritis in terms of the rear foot snake bites lumps and bumps heel pain tendonitis things like that I'd say talk to a doctor in terms of the way 4 foot and the way back and the ankle that's where I think they do their best work and that fit profile really brings me to the performance of the motiva I I will say these were a real asset being in these for this long for these like last 2 days being at the park we stay over here uh at Lighthouse Point which are all these cabins on the lake and then you come into the park and that's a pretty decent walk into the park through the park and then back and I will say typically for me if I'm going from Flat sole to rocker and then back my back can start to hurt a little bit with these though because they compress so well I really never got any of that back pain these were very accepting and with me I'm I'm holding my kit on my shoulders a lot nowadays and having that nice huge stack of foam to sink in my feet into was really nice having all that weight on my shoulder over time like I said that that's just going to start to bottom and and you might get some abnormal wear your heel might sink into these so I I think in terms of a shoe if you know you're going to be walking around a long time maybe you keep one of these new and you wear them for that trip because yeah your walking efficiency is really exceptional in these especially when you're putting in high miles in one single go right like you're on your feet all day day for for one extended period of time so I think to me that that was kind of the best use case of these um if you're going to be wearing these for kind of extended times in terms of days and months like I said get ready for this foam to start bottoming pretty darn quick to me these are not jogging shoes I know Nike markets them as that I think once they bought them they become a little bit better of a jogging shoe but I I like I said if you have any bit of instability whatsoever you may find yourself having to pay a lot more attention to every strike that maybe you don't want to be so to me if you're going to get a running shoe get a running shoe if you want a walking shoe then like I said these are fine for walking it's just I to me I'm not sure I'd be intermixing them with these but for what their main marketing is is to get you you know really good efficiency for really unforgiving walking conditions sure they're fantastic but of course I'd love to know your thoughts on the motiva are you looking to pick up a pair of rocker Soul walking shoes or just staying with your standard more flat Soul traditional shoes let me know in the comments down below and if you want to check out another pair of similar walking shoes a little more of a resilient midso setup you know kind of the antithesis to kushon 3.0 the Keen walk 400 make sure you click into this video up above subscribe down below respect rubber info I'll see you somewhere in the sneak verse