Skora Fit: A Shoe Review

The Skora Fit: A Shoe Review

In action.

Skora produces high quality, neutral shoes, and they have done so for over two years, having recently held their second anniversary sale. Their past models include the Skora Phase, the Form, the Base, and the Core, all zero drop shoes with a neutral platform. But as the company continues to grow and evolve, they have created a trainer that has unique quality and appeal. Recently, I received a sample of the Fit, a shoe the effectively replaces the Base while marrying it with the Form. After running in a 5 mile road race in them on March 1, 2014, hitting a casual 33:47 and the a 15k of 64:11(The Gate River Run)  a couple weeks later, I have fallen very much in love the shoe.

Out of the Box

The Fit takes everything I like about Skora and improves on it. First off it is a trainer with the RO1 platform, a platform that is thick enough to allow one to navigate all surfaces, and I mean all—gravel, grass, road, track, pine forest trail, mud, drainage pipes, yes I run everywhere, have all been privy to my testing—without giving up the feel of the surface. While I love using the Phase and Core for speed work, the RO2 sole always limits me a bit with a virtually non-existent stack height, it is a bit too thin for my running style and build to use every day. So the Fit with the RO1 sole that has long been my favorite really helps. I can run with confidence on a daily warm-up route that encompasses many of the above surfaces, and feel confident while in a zero drop (the platform from heel to toe is level), low stack height situation. 

In use during a 5 mile road race.

Secondly, the Fit mirrors the build of the Form, my go to shoe for the last year, but instead of leather, Skora has presented a synthetic material that breaths much better in Florida humidity (yes February in Florida is humid and April has proved to be more so). While I've never thought the Forms to be hot per se, even in August heat of Florida, the Fit is cooler and I can notice the fact. The seamless upper has a cushy feel, an embrace that is much welcomed, and it is built with a flex that can accommodate different foot shapes. The shoe works well with my wide feet and has a wide toe box, a key ingredient in preventing blisters and allowing your feet to run the way they should: without having your toes smashed together.While this is not toe box of the Core, by far Skora's most roomy model, your toes can move freely and are not scrunched together.

That said, the inside of the shoe has a significant amount of comfort, having a 16mm stack height, which while it may not seem like much, is by far the thickest of all Skora's models. The RO1 platform is a bit more hidden than on the Form, and the shoe has more of a flexible platform feel: you feel what you need to feel while receiving ample protection. Don’t get me wrong, this is not an ultra-padded, neutral shoe the companies like Altra put out (shoes which have their place), but the shoe offers a strong build and springy comfort, especially with then new 3D printed upper.

Pros:

Skora Sizing

1. Synthetic materials are great in Florida. While I love the leather Skora models, a more breathable shoe is a godsend in the humidity. 
2. Unlike the Base, the shoe has ample width and room: this shoe gets a lot of things right in this regard, trust me there. Even though it might feel snug at first, it reacts and adjusts, the shoe almost has a living quality to it. Any and all tightness fades after a wear or two. 
3. You feel everything, with or without the insole. You can walk and run the way you are intended to, with full sensation. The sole is a bit more hidden though, the ridges and build that allow for flexibility are not noticeable at this juncture. 
4. Flexibility. These shoes bend every which way, and they do so with little to no effort. They are neutral, they are light, the can run fast. I have run 300m repeats on grass in them, hitting close to where I wanted to be, and nailed 400m repeats on the track, hitting 8 between 75 and 83. The held up great through back-to-back 3200m thresholds around 12:35. I was confident in my running and thought little about the shoe, a key aspect. This fact remains evident in road races as well, holding up in both a 5 miler and a 15k without invoking any thoughts of footwear.
   
5. Great Colorways, great appearance as Skora evolves, working to build a brand identity to advance as a company.
6. The Form, which the Fit betters, had a saggy heel. The heel did not alter the fit of the shoe, it was an appearance issue. While this heel may be a bit heavy on the bottom, now it looks great all around.

All models of the Fit.

Cons (all of these were initial and have essentially ceased to be concerns):

1. At times I feel a bit loose in the toes, I noticed this fact most early in runs. The material, which is printed via 3D printers, took a couple times out to get used to. When I fixated on the idea, I felt my toes digging in and grabbing the shoe. My feet had a different working feel, which is fine, but I did expect a slightly different feel. Since I rotate shoes, this shouldn’t be a huge problem—I see this being a long mileage and race shoe anyway. Over time, this thought has dissipated, but it is worth noting.
2. The insole has raised perforations, something I love, but I feel as if these are a bit too overdone. They seem a bit too up there, a bit too protruded. I hate pointing out issues with a shoe I like, but honesty is key. This irritant vanished after a few runs as well and as I have crossed into the range of multiple hundred, they are not an issue.
   
3. Laces. The shoe laces, as is common with Skora, are a bit long. I always tuck my laces, regardless of brand and model, so not a major issue.

Skora can be found socially at: 
facebook.com/skorarunning  |  @skoraRunning | http://instagram.com/skorarunning/#
 

New Publication: The East Jasmine Review

Quick post here. A piece of my flash fiction, "Shogun" has been selected by The East Jasmine Review. It is currently available, via their website in a PDF offering, one that can be viewed on all eReaders and desktops. Please check it out.

Click to purchase.

Also, you can still purchase another piece, one of my favorite of all time, "So Much Like You" from Emerge Literary Journal, put out by ELJ press. The piece is available in the Winter 2013 edition, for purchase through Amazon.

Book Review: The Man in the High Castle

Philip K. Dick’s Hugo Award winning book, The Man in the High Castle, ponders the horrific but possible idea that World War II had gone the opposite way. Rooted in the idea that FDR was the USA’s savoir, the leader that indiscriminately pulled the country out of depression and into a position of worldwide economic and militaristic dominance, is assassinated in the 1930’s. Thus the USA is under a different steward, one who lacks the necessary abilities to navigate a decade wrought with peril, and in the end this leader forfeits the war. In this world, the Germans have divided the United States in two, sharing it with Japan while dominating it as a whole with their secret police.

A thought provoking world structure is presented. Japan dominates the East, Germany the West. The Germans have decimated Africa on the heels of their successful European campaign of genocide, have entered space and begun intergalactic colonization, and they have their sights set on the East in an effort to take the world wholly into their grasp. That said, the novel offers a compelling story, one full of characters that intrigue while working to establish a universe distinctly different than our own. Germans still hunt down Jews, most of which have gone into hiding by changing their names and appearances. Hitler rots in an asylum, having gone insane as the result of disease, and his cronies and supporters are passing away in due time, leaving messy, nearly medieval battles of succession. Either way, the quest for the ideal man remains, with all of those who defy the mold being cast aside and left expendable.

Yet, while the novel mentions German politics and examines a moment of German succession, the events concentrate more on the state of the States, specifically in the western half, the one controlled by the Japanese. Here life has descended into two communities: dominate class of Japanese and a subservient culture of Americans. The Americans, such as Frank Frink and Robert Childran hold the Japanese in high esteem, wishing to serve them, earn their respect, and come to understand their culture. On the other hand, the Japanese view the Americans with a degree of curiosity, collecting relics of American past, relics that Americans once mass produced and now go to great lengths to counterfeit. Collectors, such as Tagomi strive to understand their surroundings, live in fear of their German partners, and constantly consult the I Ching for answers. The mysticism of the oracle rains supreme, answers their questions, and writes their future.

Strangely enough, the book’s title is owed to writing within the writing. A book within the book, The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, comes from an author reputed to live in fear, hiding out in a high castle protected by security in order to keep the Germans at bay, for the author known as Abendsen has written a novel in which the Germans are defeated and the Americans win the war. Such material boarders on treason and thus leaves the author open to attack, hence his secure hiding spot. While the alternate reality here isn’t the same as the truth, it creates ire among the German secret police, inflames the masses, and calls the war itself into question. This ponderance hits on one of the books main points: what is reality, how is it determined, and where is our plain of existence. Are we a book with a book? A truth? Or are we at the mercy of the Oracle. In the end the novel asks more questions than answers, yet serves as a satisfying glimpse into a world that never was from the world we hope that is.

On Reading Flannery O'Connor's "The Heart of The Park"

While existing as a separate story, “The Heart of the Park” brings back Enoch Emery, a recurrent character for O’Connor, and Hazel “Haze” Weaver from “The Peeler.” While the overall tension of the past piece has diminished, the characters come together and pickup as if little overall has changed.

Here, Enoch reasserts himself with the same grotesque innocence that he held before. Enoch represents the inexperienced youth, the teenager that purports to know everything, following a thin selection of the rules, yet at the same time he peeps at women from the bushes, spits on caged animals, and frequents brothels whenever he can spare the money. Plainly put, he is a fool. Or as O'Connor would say, he is a dolt. Enoch feels that the park has a certainty, a meaning that needs to be shared and spread around to the masses while kept secret at the same time, but can one take Enoch seriously? This boy, for he is not truly a man, watches women bathe, not out in the open, not in the typical teenaged beach gawk, but rather from the bushes with the appearance of the devil: “His face was always very red in the bushes. Anyone who parted the abelia sprigs at just that place would think he saw a devil” (83). Such secrecy, such imagery forces one to wonder if Enoch is up to something more, if there is a deeper, darker thing going on, yet knowing O’Connor and her style, the peeping is merely that. Enoch likes to watch and feels uncomfortable with being watch back. The peeping is not even a secret: “‘The guard said I’d find you at the swimming pool … he said you hid in the bushes and watched’” (85). Thus the peeping is an action of innocence designed to make the skin crawl.

Regardless, Enoch knows the pool’s the frequenters, their styles of bathing attire, and their schedules, and with the knowledge Enoch is shocked to see his old nemesis Haze appear, creating a moment of aberrance in Enoch’s daily routine. Haze had been the man Enoch strove to impress, the one he strove to show just how smart he was to. Haze had rejected all claims and served as a foil to Enoch’s eager nature. This time around, Enoch literally slides into Haze’s car and anoints Haze as the destined recipient of the park’s secret truth, the truth that only Enoch understands. Thus Haze, who desires to renew his past confrontation with the blind man, must endure Enoch’s whimsical wants. O’Connor now plunges the reader into the opposite of these two’s previous encounter, one where Haze stalked the blind man and Enoch stalked him with an unwanted babble. This time, Haze is in Enoch’s hold and driven through the fool's world, one where waitresses refer to him as a “son of a bitch” straight to his face only to be ignored and misunderstood (88).

The piece proceeds casually, Enoch pretending to have the blind man’s address, Haze begging for it, while the two slog through Enoch’s daily routine. Haze rebels against the routine, his guide, and at times life in general. He remains driven in his quest to be mysterious, to be experienced, and to have control, while Enoch continues to be, well Enoch: the epitome of convoluted, whimsical failure. The piece’s conflict comes at the park’s heart, in Enoch’s place, where everyone who is supposed to be put into the room is there, creating the boiling over needed for a typical O’Connor ending that bleeds both uncertainty yet certainty at the same time.

Favorite lines:

• “The park was the heart of the city. He had come to the city—with a knowledge in his blood—he had established himself at the heart of it” (82). This line speaks of the perplexed nature that is Enoch—he thinks he is so smart, so bright, when in actuality he stands as naïve and lost.

• “She had a stained white bathing suit that fit her like a sack, and Enoch watched her with pleasure on several occasions” (83). Classic O’Connor description that digs into the heart of the character.

• “Every animal there had a personal haughty hatred him like society people have for climbers” (90). Says so much about Enoch, the times, and life, in such a compact, driven sentence.

Other posts on the The Complete Stories include “The Life You Save May Be Your Own,” “The Geranium,” “The Barber,” “The Wildcat,” “The Crop,” “The Turkey,” “The Train,” “The Peeler,”“The Heart of the Park,” “A Stroke of Good Fortune,” “Enoch and the Gorilla,” “A Late Encounter with the Enemy,” “The River,” “A Circle in the Fire,” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find.”  If the book interests you, please use the link in the first paragraph or click the picture to support my efforts when you purchase the text.