As you may have realized by now, I enjoy a good Nike product. Recently, I have had the good fortune of acquiring two new items: the Nike Shield Flash Running Jacket and a pair of Nike Zoom Terra Kiger trail runners.
Nike Shield Flash Running Jacket:
Once it began to get darker earlier in the day, I began looking for a running jacket that is both super reflective and is on the longer side. I took a look at the Running Room, but their jackets started at about $80 and I wasn’t happy with either the fit or the reflectiveness of the ones I tried on. I realized that this is going to be a large ticket item and figured if I was going to drop that kind of money on a jacket, it better be perfect!
I was loitering on Facebook when I saw a link for the Nike Shield Flash Running Jacket. It comes in either black or safety green and the entire lower half (front and back) is made out of incredibly reflective silver fabric. The fit looked great and it even had a hood … the only problem was that it cost $375! I looked around online to see if there were any deals that brought it down to a more reasonable price and, surprisingly, I found it on sale at MEC for $199. It was still a lot of money, but very worth it if it prevents a car from hitting me!
I purchased it immediately and must have ordered the last one because when I went back to send the link to a friend who was looking for a similar type jacket, it was no longer available on the website.
A couple days later my new jacket arrived! The length is perfect, the fabric is really comfortable, and the reflectiveness is amazing! The hood also fits well and is detachable, and the sleeves have thumb holes and a flap that can flip over to cover your whole hand. I’ve worn it for several runs now and I seem to underestimate how warm the jacket is despite being very thin and light and thus I wear too many layers underneath. The zipper can unzip from both the top and the bottom and I’ve found doing both helps give it a little extra ventilation while still keeping the jacket in place.
Overall, I am very happy with the jacket and I definitely feel it is worth the $199 I spent on it. I’m so visible that if I manage to get hit by a car now, at least I’ll know it was personal …
Nike Zoom Terra Kiger Trail Runners:
I had asked for a pair of trail runners for Christmas both for off-road running and for road running in slippery winter conditions. Before I made my Christmas list, I researched the Nike Zoom Terra Kiger and the Nike Zoom Wildhorse shoes. They had both received great reviews in a recent Runner’s World magazine and I generally stick to Nike shoes as I am always happy with them (and they look awesome).
These two shoes seem to be very similar, at least to me, so I didn’t necessarily have a preference between the two. I did read an article about the subtle differences on the Running Warehouse blog but what it came down to was the availability of colours. I had specifically mentioned that I am not crazy about the fushia/purple colour that the Wildhorse seem to only be available in around here, although it wasn’t a dealbreaker. My brother, who bought me the shoes for Christmas, decided (correctly) to go with the blue/green Terra Kigers.
The Terra Kigers fit and feel similar to Nike Free runners, however, I found them to be even more comfortable. This could be because they are new and not yet ravaged by sweat, rain, and dirt. Unfortunately for me, the Terra Kigers do not have the Nike+ sensor compartment in the sole. After attempting to wedge my Nike+ sensor into various parts of the runners with little success, I decided to purchased a RunAway shoe clip. I wasn’t sure if having the sensor in the sole of the shoe versus clipped to the top would make a difference in detecting steps, but so far it seems to work well.
