Nike Flex Experience Run 12
Specifically the black soled ones. They seemingly have more grip than the variants that come in white and different colors, especially when playing in a humid environment/wiping dust off of the shoe with a microfiber, which addresses one of the things I don't like about Nike Frees and their ilk. It makes it difficult to play on toes in them to get full leg muscles utilization for some of the crazier/stretchier doubles movements.
Another thing the Nike Flex Experience Run does really well compared to the frees, is the upper part of the shoe is a lot more substantial, and the laces work the same way like traditional shoes where you can tighten them up to get them extra snug. It gives me that "glued to foot" feeling when I size it correctly-- it's hard for me to get that in frees without it feeling like I'm gonna bust up the toebox, or feeling like my foot is shifting around inside the shoe because the toebox is stretching since frees are designed to be a slip-on shoe, not one where the laces actually do anything substantial. I find that this "glued to foot" feeling is ESSENTIAL for maximizing my footspeed in dance games, because it minimizes the amount of milliseconds my brain spends processing "has my foot actually lifted off the pad".
I tried this shoe a couple years back when some friends reccomended it to me but I bought them in like size 10, which made them feel like clown shoes in retrospect. Something that did not click for me at the time, is that for every different pair of shoes, the sizing is completely different depending on the materials of the shoe.
A good example is the Asics Tarther RP3 I own. They're like the BEST fitting shoe I own period, but they're listed as a size 10. The only reason I ever figured out sizing was a big deal for shoes was because of those shoes. I wondered why they felt so great even though I owned a bunch of other shoes, and it's because even though they're listed as US Men's Size 10/JP 28cm/EU 44, the shoes are SUPER tight on my feet everywhere but not uncomfortable!
So I started experimenting with sizing down in other shoes and realized I could size down much smaller for athletics, but it depends on the materials of the shoe so my toes are comfy.
The nice part about the Nike Flex Experience Run is I can size them down to a US Men's 8.5/JP 26.5cm/EU 42 without it hurting my feet/toes. They clock in at 228 grams, which is exceptionally light.
The shock absorption on these bad boys is also really good. It doesn't provide any "help" to your feet in terms of bounce the way that my Nike Free Run NN FK's do, but does a really good job of absorbing excess shock but also gives good grounded feel one you break the foam soles in. This grounded feel imo is really important for dance game footspeed also. It allows me to know when my feet have hit the surface faster, and expend less energy lifting.
I'm excited to play in these tonight. I've been playing in size 9's of these for the past couple weeks in these and I really liked the grip and grounded feel of the shoes and felt like I got stronger physically without being taxed by the weight of the shoes like I do when I rock the soccer kicks, but I felt like something was off even though I was doing really well. Turns out I have to go half a size down in these because sizing numbers are never the same across different shoes.
