Nike Free Metcon 2 Training Sneakers

Recipe one, in the gym: black shorts, a fitted technical tee, crew socks, the shoe locked down tight for lifting sets. Recipe two, going there: grey sweatpants, a plain hoodie, so it reads as a low profile trainer rather than as equipment. Use it for circuits, lifting, short shuttles and box work. Do not use it for runs beyond a few hundred metres, because the firm heel gives you nothing over repeated impact and your calves will tell you. Fit true and lace firmly with zero heel slip. Pull the insole out to dry after sweaty sessions, wipe chalk off the upper, and keep it out of the washing machine.

Nike's presence in ordinary gyms is downstream of its authority in professional sport, from first professional endorser Ilie Nastase in tennis and first track endorser Steve Prefontaine, through signature athletes including Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Kevin Durant. But the more relevant lineage is the advertising. Just Do It, written by Dan Wieden in 1988 and first aired on 1 July 1988 with 80 year old runner Walt Stack, was addressed to amateurs and named one of the top five ad slogans of the twentieth century by Advertising Age before entering the Smithsonian. A hybrid training shoe is that slogan's real product: built for people whose training is neither one thing nor the other.

A training shoe with a split personality by design: a flexible, grooved forefoot that lets the foot bend through sprints and jumps, and a firmer, wider heel that resists compression under load so force transfers into the floor rather than into foam. The upper is built for lateral movement and rope abrasion rather than for breathability alone, and the fit is deliberately locked down through the midfoot. Nike's Dri-FIT moisture wicking platform is the company's answer to sweat, and a gym shoe lives in it. Do not expect running cushioning here. The compromise costs you comfort over distance and buys you stability under a barbell, which is the trade the shoe was built to make.