Brian K Inman

Those who don’t know my background, out of college I had the opportunity to do work with Nike for four and half years. It was an amazing job right out of college for someone who loved sports and wanted to continue in the sports world. During that time I would report to WHQ in Beaverton at least 3-4 times a year for briefings on the new product launches. I was able to see the newest models of footwear before they were released. Not only seeing them prior to launch on a few occasions, I being sample size (US size 9) was able to wear test a few shoes before their launch to give the product team feedback. All that to be said, after four plus years of wearing the newest/current product line, I collected a LOT of shoes. So many shoes when I got married, my wife said that I had to get rid of a bunch. I guess comparing to gender social roles, females should have more shoes, but prior to marriage, I had over 90 pairs of footwear. A mix of running, casual, training, cleated, and dress (at the time Nike also owned Cole Haan) shoes. I trimmed that number down to about 75 after the wedding and then two years later, down to be low 45.

For me to wear anything other than Nike, is very strange. For me to consider anything other than Nike, my friends and family would question. But it’s been over 8 years since I’ve worked with Nike so most of my stockpile of shoes have ran out and I wanted to try something new.

While working with Nike, I traveled the United States pushing the swoosh. I was able to travel to all 48 continental states during that four plus years and found myself in over a thousand nights in hotels. So when trying to stay in some form of shape, I would go out in the city and run instead of a hotel treadmill. The early adopter of fitness mapping was MapMyRun app that would use GPS to track where you’ve been. Being new to a city and not knowing distances, I would typically just go out the hotel and make a bunch of right turns until I made it back to the hotel. Their app would trace my steps and allow me to know where, how far, how fast I ran. They were later acquired by Under Armour, so I’ve been crossing brands for some time.  You can read an older blog I wrote on connected footwear.

By being a user of MapMyRun and MyFitnessPal apps, after recording so many activities in a month, they would give me coupon codes for set dollar amounts off if I spend on Under Armour. I read about their connected shoes and wanted to see what they were about and having a discount seemed like the right time.

I found the pair of shoes that I wanted to try after reading some of the reviews online and selected the Hovr Sonic Connected Under Armour shoes. I was able to select the size and limited colors that met my needs and completed the order. Then after 3 days (it said shipping would be 2 days) I look online to find out that my order had been cancelled but I never got any info stating that. So my first experience cross brands was a VERY bad no good customer experience. I wanted to figure out what happened so I called their customer service phone line because I also wanted to get my discount that I used back since I never really used it. They told me it was out of stock. I was not happy with that experience at all. Thinking back to my Nike days, we always had new product launches and I never recalled this type of issues on shoes, except for Js. They told me it would be another 3-4 weeks before more of these shoes would be in stock.

After what seemed like two months, I was able to order a pair of shoes in my size, though not really the color that I wanted, but since it was the size, I didn’t want to wait another month.

When I received the FedEx notification that my shoes had been delivered, I wanted to get home right away and try them out.

After a fun time opening the box of my first pair of Under Armour shoes, I tried them on. They fit really well. I was nervous not knowing how the sizing would be crossing brands and never wearing a pair before, but very glad they fit well enough that I didn’t have to send them back and wait for restocking.

I took them out for a casual two mile run to see how they felt and any initial thoughts.

The shoes felt great. I like a very light and breathable upper with a strong core and midsole. These match my wants.

Like I said this review is only after two miles of casual running and quick look over of the shoe, I’m impressed. I might be a fan of Under Armour shoes…did I just say that out loud?