Review: Reebok Crossfit Sprint TR (Updated: 7/5)

The reason this review is a “first impression” review, is because I literally just got the shoes in, tried them on, walked around, and packed them back up to return. I had much higher hopes for these shoes. For the sake of the readers, I’ll put up anything rather than nothing at all.  I’ve had enough pairs of crossfit shoes by now to know what differentiates a good one from a bad one…and well you can guess what category the Sprints fall into. I’m just going to make a list on the pro’s and con’s.

Pros:

• They look really cool.
• The sole is actually pretty hard and grippy.

Cons:

• The mid foot way too narrow!  I don’t have Flinstone feet or anything, but I feel like my arches are falling out of these shoes.
• The insole is SUPER cushioned.  Would not be good for lifting.
• Not only is the shoe too narrow, it’s TALL.  Feels unstable, think walking on a tight rope.
• More expensive than speeds, 2.0’s, and most Inov-8s.
• The laces are really cheap feeling.  The laces that come on the ZQuick TR’s are WAY nicer and heavier duty.

Save some money and go with the (excellent!) Reebok ONE ZQuick TR’s.  Expect a full review on those soon, they’re the shoe that the Sprint’s should have been.

EDIT 7/5:

Reebok had a sale on these shoes so I decided to give them another go. This time I sized up to a 9.5. to compensate for the narrow midfoot.  It helped a little bit, but now I have excess space up where my toes are…not that much but it bugs me that there’s some space there.  Well, at least it made the shoes usable to me, which is a good thing, since the shoes aren’t THAT bad after-all.

Looks:

I really dug the looks of the Sprint TR’s.  They’ve got the whole Duracage construction going on, with all the CrossFit design on them, but they never come off too gaudy.  They look a lot more like a running shoe than a trainer, for obvious reasons.  I can’t comment much about the color schemes, I went with red/grey just because that’s my jam.  They’ve got some interesting other colors, but nothing I would personally go for other than maybe the new red/white/blue (‘mmmmerica) colorway.

Performance/Fit:

Sprint Trainer.  That’s a pretty accurate assessment for these shoes.  They’re a decent trainer, and a better running shoe.  Everything I said in my first impressions still remain true, the midfoot is a little too narrow, the shoes feel a little too tall and the ortholite insoles feel a tad too soft.  The funny thing is, the combination of these things plus the propulsion plate/slanted forefoot area, make for pretty good shoe for metcons  The shoes actually do feel like they’re pushing you forward; quick 200’s and 400’s feel much nicer compared to the wider and flatter Nano’s. Are they the best distance running shoe, I don’t know; the longest I usually go is for a mile run and they’re good enough for that.  What I do know, is that they’re good enough to go from burpees, to box jumps, to wall balls, to a run without missing a step.

Fitment is as stated before. Wider feet should look elsewhere.  Thinking about it now, I would have stuck with the original size 9’s.  My feet aren’t THAT wide, but it did bug me that they were so narrow.  I’ve heard of people breaking them in and them loosening up for a more comfortable fit though.  Size as you’d size your normal Reebok Nano; unless you’re dead set on these shoes and you have wide feet, go for the half size up.

Value/Conclusion:

At  $115, these would be an accessory shoe for someone that wants a running shoe to go along with their Nano’s or it would be a Nano replacement for those with narrow feet.  I feel like they should go for about $15 less, but that’s just my own opinion.  You can easily find Inov-8’s for a lot less than this, that offer fairly the same performance.  Sure, the Sprint TR’s gimmick actually works (propulsion plate), but I’m not sure if the shoes are a necessity.  They definitely aren’t a bad shoe, I’m just not sure I would take them over some of Reebok’s competing brands.