I've had issues before such as sole rubber getting hard and rubber soles separating from the foam portion but these were with older shoes that I felt I got my moneys worth. No big deal.

This time it was with a $200 pair of cleats. They lasted my son 3 months of varsity football before the entire bottom and top part of one shoe separated in the middle of a game. Luckily the trainers taped them and they lasted the rest of the game. The other shoe was in decent shape. I sent them into Nike for warranty and received the below.

This will be my last pair of Nikes if I can help it as they don't stand behind their products.

"We have received your claim product and after a thorough inspection, we've determined the issue is not a result of a material or manufacturing flaw, per our return guidelines, and we're unable to issue a product voucher."

sucks that happened to you and not the best response from the swoosh. I have zero current affiliation with them.

that said, i've run in hundreds of pairs of nikes (i use to indirectly work for them), both trail and road. I have also have multiple soccer cleats, basketball shoes, and casual nikes. Never had a similar issue.

Can't say I blame you for looking elsewhere based on this experience, but its very likely a one-off issue.

I reluctantly still buy the occasional pair for the aesthetics. Every one of the 4 pair I've bought in the last decade developed a squeak that won't go away, or an odd click in the midsole.

Hot garbage. Nice looking, but temu manufacturing.

This was 8-10 years ago...

I hate Nike. Especially their "athletic" shoes. Far be it for me to disagree with OO, but from a sports aspect, one that requires a lot of cutting, in my experience they are terrible.

My daughter played basketball AAU and highschool. She had a lot of foot and ankle problems and had to wear a brace. Nike's were the only ones that fit comfortably. So, we had to buy Nike. We tried other brands, but she found a shoe that worked really well for her. She went through so many pairs. We even had to run to Academy during a tournament in between games to replace a pair that blew out during a game. It seems like they only lasted a month or a month in a half. Got so bad, we actually carried a spare pair.

LOYAL AG said:

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AggieOO said:

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sucks that happened to you and not the best response from the swoosh. I have zero current affiliation with them.

that said, i've run in hundreds of pairs of nikes (i use to indirectly work for them), both trail and road. I have also have multiple soccer cleats, basketball shoes, and casual nikes. Never had a similar issue.

Can't say I blame you for looking elsewhere based on this experience, but its very likely a one-off issue.

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That seems to be the definition of a warranty claim. If generally your shoes are well made but one of them failed in regular use that seems like a defect. Yet Nike denied the claim. Seems like a bad idea to lose business of protentially multiple families over something like this.

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exactly why i said the bolded part. I wasn't defending their handling of the situation, just providing some very lengthy and in-depth experience with the brand's footwear that most people don't have. I will admit that probably 80% of my experience is on the running side, which won't have the same lateral movements, but I did spend time working with basketball, football, and soccer as well.

AggieOO said:

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LOYAL AG said:

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AggieOO said:

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sucks that happened to you and not the best response from the swoosh. I have zero current affiliation with them.

that said, i've run in hundreds of pairs of nikes (i use to indirectly work for them), both trail and road. I have also have multiple soccer cleats, basketball shoes, and casual nikes. Never had a similar issue.

Can't say I blame you for looking elsewhere based on this experience, but its very likely a one-off issue.

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That seems to be the definition of a warranty claim. If generally your shoes are well made but one of them failed in regular use that seems like a defect. Yet Nike denied the claim. Seems like a bad idea to lose business of protentially multiple families over something like this.

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exactly why i said the bolded part. I wasn't defending their handling of the situation, just providing some very lengthy and in-depth experience with the brand's footwear that most people don't have. I will admit that probably 80% of my experience is on the running side, which won't have the same lateral movements, but I did spend time working with basketball, football, and soccer as well.

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yeah we're agreeing with each other. I just didn't say it well.

ah, sorry about that. all good!

Nike has used different locations to manufacture the same shoe. I recall a certain NIke model being made in two different countries and one was crap.

It really depends on what type of shoe you're buying because they aren't the best in quality for every sport.

I am no help on the Nike claim front but kudos to you for taking your kid's footwear seriously!

My mom was painfully cheap growing up and in 7th grade she refused to buy me anything but the cheapest Riddell shoes on the shelf. Her reasoning was that I outgrew them fast and she wasn't wasting money on the high dollar shoes! I showed up to school in $15 shoes that had all the durability and charm of $5 shoes. I had one pair that the tongue ripped out the second time I tugged on it to lace them up. Several other pairs had the sole completely split from the rest of the shoen leaving the shoe looking like it was talking to you. During basketball tryouts I had the sole of some high-tops leave the shoe mid agility drill! I'll never forget one of the kids I went to school with remarking on my shoe problems. The kid was from the wrong side of the tracks, and although white, his voice and inflection made him sound like one of the blackest people ever. He said "maaan, you ain't ever gonna be able to ball with those ghetto ass kicks..." That cut me deep coming from a kid who was clearly worse off than me, and way better at basketball.

I finally talked mom into buying an expensive pair ($40) of Nikes, with the caveat that I throw in what was left of the birthday money I had. I found it ironic that she probably spent double replacing soleless shoes than if she had bought one pair of decent shoes to start! Thanks for letting me share this story with the group...I am clearly not still carrying a grudge 25 years later!