This will be my first reveiw, but it wont be the last and I plan to be thorough.<br /><br />For use for Ice traction - <br />On ice these work very well. The spikes dig into the ice, many times down the plate. As long as you learn how to walk well on the ice with these, you should be able to run on the ice with them. Warning: Do not use on thin ice., you will penetrate the ice sheet and you will get very cold and very wet.<br />On ice - 4 out of 5 : Minus one point for the thin ice factor, it will crack the ice easier<br /><br />For use for dirt traction - <br />While walking, you can barely feel the spikes sinking into the earth, unless the earth is hard. In that case it sinks in with a slight bit of resistance. Accelerration can only be comparable to the feel of taking a brand new pair of sneakers and running on concrete or asphault. At top speed you dont feel the spikes under you at all, only the traction you get from them. They sink without a problem, and exit without a problem as long as you are running on earth.<br />On earth - 5 out of 5 : No cons to using these on earth<br /><br />For use on concrete or brick - <br />I do not suggest this at all. AT ALL. These spikes are not made out of high grade steel and will not keep it's sharp point if you walk or run on concrete, asphault, brick, or anything hard like that. If you cannot avoid walking on before mentioned hard surface, then take off the spikes or the shoes that the spikes are attached to and walk barefooted (or in your socks) across it and put them back on when you're back on softer ground.<br />On hard stone-like surfaces - 0 out of 5 : They wear down the points, they're loud, extremely hard to run on, actually lessens the traction. Absolutely no good can come of using these on concrete<br /><br />For use for climbing-<br />If you are climbing a tree with these, chances are you did what I did and paired them with the hand claws. While these footspikes do offer a fair amount of traction while climbing. This is of course using the "bear climbing" method where your feet are on opposite side of the tree, with the soles of your feet flat against the tree. The spikes dig in a small amount, enough to give you a small edge in climbing. However with this method you are limited by the size of the tree. If the tree is too large you wont be able to wrap your feet around it, too small and you can just simply bend the tree over. Also many trees that fit within this zone of usability have branches low enough to where you can jump up, grab hold of it, and then use these spikes flat against the tree to walk yourself up.<br />For climbing - 3 out of 5 : Not the most perfect tool for climbing up trees, definately helps a bit if you have the right kind of tree plus the right kind of climbing method.<br /><br />For use as weapons -<br />These fit on to the bottom of the feet, and they are black so that means they are easily concealable. I've tested many martial arts movements that would employ these as weapons including the hook kick, snap kick, front kick, back kick, the hook sweeping kick, and probably a few more I'm forgetting to mention. They all are still executable almost perfectly, with the exception of the pivoting kicks like the hook kick and the hook sweeping kick, which only require a short time to get used to and then all of the kicks one would normally do can be executable while wearing these.<br />As weapons - 4 out of 5, seeing as how most fights take place on concrete, and with everything I've written above about using them on concrete. You'll be lucky if the fight you're getting into is on dirt, because if the concrete is no longer a part of the issue, you've got one hell of a pair of weapons.<br /><br /><br /><br />Pros and Cons<br /><br />Pros-<br />Fast shipping, only took two days to arrive here. I'll be a happy man if all of the items I order from here arrive as promptly as these have.<br />Awesome traction, if you use these on anything but concrete, it will be sure to impress.<br />Price, $8 is a pretty good price for the traction this allows.<br /><br />Cons-<br />Attachment, it only comes with one small shoelace to attach to your shoe originally. A basic fix to this is buying another pair of shoelaces, but even those slip off occasionally. However you can superglue them to the bottom of old shoes, but this pretty much makes the pair of shoes completely dedicated to the spikes. Unless you have either superglue or an elaborate system of shoelaces, there is a good chance for slipping.<br />Shoelaces themselves - They are prone to breaking because the holes drilled into the sides leave square edges that will cut into the string after extended use.<br />If you use the supergluing method, then you can remove all of the shoelace problems, but your left with the problem of having dedicated shoes.<br /><br />Now, the major question everyone's been wondering: Should I buy this?<br />I rate this as a 4.5 out of 5, for the simple fact the attachment method could have been made much better. But since I can only rate in whole numbers, and the attachment problem is easily fixed, I give this a 5 out of 5. So should you buy this? My answer is : Yes, it's definately worth the money. Buy them and use them, you wont be disappointed (as long as you fix the attachment problem)<br /><br />Thanks Trueswords.com for supplying another great item.
4.6 ( 7 reviews )
