UA Brigade XC 2 Spikeless

The best accolades I can give these is that they look cool and feel good to wear fit wise. Definitely designed to be an outdoor shoe even though it is flat, not for indoors use. 
 
  
 
The main problem with these, is that the plastic support in the middle extends to the forefoot with these small plastic spikes, even though the shoe is advertised as a flat/spikeless variant. This causes a lot of issues with grip/toeing off on flat surfaces. 
 
 
As you can see, the tiny plastic spikes prevents use on surfaces like dance game stages-- I'm glad I noticed these before giving them a spin because I definitely would have scratched up my stages.
 
 
So, I did what any sensible person would do (jk) and start mutilating my brand new shoes by cutting off all of the teeny tiny plastic spikes with wire clippers. 
 
 

All better and ready for use on dance game stages. While inspecting the shoe and trying it on, I did note that it had really good heel lockdown and felt really secure around the heel and gave a good sense of heel weightlessness, which I really liked.
 
 
 
After playing a couple sets with the shoes, I immediately went back to the Nike Zoom Rival Waffle 6 & the New Balance FuelCell XC7 V5 flats for dance games. These shoes have a strange sensation where when you dig into your toes for more grip on flat surfaces, you actually lose grip because of the plastic piece in the forefoot. It's like the exact opposite of what you want when playing doubles, which is a shame because the shoe feels really great otherwise. I wonder if I could apply a high-durability-adhesive vinyl tape to the flat plastic part in the forefoot on these, because they felt excellent otherwise.
 

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