Ever parkour forum has one, so I figured I would get the ball rolling here. Reveiw and talk about your equipment here. I have thought about gear way to much so here is the synthesis of my overly active mind.
For those of you newer to the sport I'll offer the standard advice on what you need. Basically it comes down to a pair of good athletic trainers and some clothes that you are comfortable in that allow lots of movement and don't get in your way.
For trainers you want a shoe that is good for running in (so no skate shoes), grips various surfaces well (many trail runners have a tread too aggressive for concrete), has descent shock absorption especially in the forefoot (lacking in many traditional road running shoes), and one would like it to be durable, toe bumpers are nice plus to cushion those cat leaps. The fit needs to be snug or your greatly increasing your risk of injury on landings. Plastic mid arches are a no no they will make you slip if you land on them.
The most recommended parkour shoes I have seen, are the Nike air Pegasus, the Merrell Slam, the Asics gel legato or gel 1100, and the Adidas Nova.
Personally I think the ideal parkour shoe would have climbing sticky rubber out sole on the bones of good trail runner. I have been researching a group of shoes known as mountain running or running approach shoes that seem pretty close to that description, unfortuneatly nobody carries them but here is what i have been able to learn.
Five Ten access. A freind of mine got a pair of these he said the grip was incredible but otherwise it was poorly designed shoe which was difficult to lace tightly had little cushioning and didn't feel supportive enough.
http://www.moosejaw.com/moosejaw/product.asp?s_ID=0&dept_id=10077&pf_id=PAAAIAMFDPBCLDBD&ad_id=FroogleLa Sportiva Exum Ridge.
http://www.zappos.com/n/p/p/7138232.htmlThis shoe is extremely highly rated by the adventure racing crowd and la sportivas in genereal are considered a super high quality brand. Another freind got these so far he likes them, says the grip is incredible, the cushioning pretty good, the stability excellent and they run better then his merrell stretchs. The sole is apparently somewhat stiff
The La Sportiva Rajas:
http://www.sportiva.com/products/prod/304This shoe is my new desire, it has a hybrid rubber sole combinging a harder high traction climbing rubber with softer high traction trail running rubber. Should stick to everthing. Its got a lot of good design features for foot protection support and stability. They also sell a gore tex version called the neva.
The La sportiva Cardiff:
http://www.sportiva.com/products/prod/305Similar to the above but without a hybrid rubber sole.
La Sportiva Superfly and Slingshot: Very lightweight fast shoes the first with straight climbing sole, might be good for someone not looking for a allot of shock absorbtion.
The Montrail CTC:
http://www.zappos.com/n/p/p/7213958.htmlSticky rubber sole with climbing tread in the front, traction heel in the back. Highly rated maybe a bit stiff and high of the ground for our purposes. I am going to go try this shoe out soon. Montrail are excellent shoes, they fit extremely well are known for durability.
The Montrail Kinabula:
http://www.zappos.com/n/p/dp/4580379/c/7992.htmlCarbon rubber traction sole designed for traction on wet surfaces as well as dry. Built on adapted version of montrail highly rated integrafit last. I would make sure to try this one out before buying it might really work for our purposes might no
The Salomon Dreamer
http://www.zappos.com/n/p/p/7156417.htmlI bought this shoe recently been injured so I haven't had much time to test them out. I will give my impressions on it as of now but they may change. The grip is exceptional the previous most grippy trainer I had was the nike air pegasus and this shoe beats it hands down on every surface I have tried it on. The sole is some what stiff and I feel higher of the ground then I would like. The shock absorbtion is exceptional however I am not sure I feel as supported or stable as I would like, the shoe is very difficult to lace tightly.
Not sure how I feel about them completely yet, I was stoked on them at first now I am considering returning them.
Besides shoes, pants are probably the most important piece of equipment. Pants can limit your mobility or get in your way if you have the wrong ones and many pants that don’t inhibit your performance will just get ripped to shreds by parkour.
The most common things I have seen people train in are jeans, cargo pants, sweats and track bottoms.
Jeans: the good thing about them is the can handle allot of rough treatment, but even when they fit real well they’ll inhibit movement to some degree, and they become uncomfortable for running long periods of time in. I tend to tear the crotches out of my jeans, if I try to use them as running around pants. If your really lake Jeans try to find a gusseted crotch denim pant like the Prana Sonora pant.
Cargo pants: Never really used general cargo pants.
Track bottoms and Sweat pants: Awesome mobility, if you get a good pair they’ll perform well in various conditions too. Durability is usually not good. I tear the crotches out of these too.
I looked pretty hard into finding the best pants for parkour cause I have habit of destroying pants, and what I keep coming back to is climbing pants climbers have the closest to demands to traceurs in what the need from pants. Most climbing pants are made with gusseted crotch to allow more freedom of movement their designed to be durable, well fiting and not to get in your way. The most recommended pants I could find were the Prana stretch Zion pants. I just got a pair myself. Other highly recommended brands were, Arborwear, Patagonia, Arcteryx, North Face, Horny toad, and Gramacci.
Shirts are not a big issue but for some conditions its nice to have sweat wicking performance type top these can be found at a REI or a running shoe store.
Well enough with introduction here’s my reviews.
Salomon XA pro comp trail shoes:
I liked these shoes overall quite a bit, they fit perfect, were awesome for just running and looked pretty good, none the less I can’t recommend them for couple reasons. Which will be explained below
Style: 7 the looked good a little flashy for my taste but not bad.
Grip: 5 running over most surfaces was fine but tyring to go up or across hard vertical surfaces they tread was just to agressive for it to really grip.
Cushion: 7 not shoe designed for cushion I still never really negatively felt the ground in them, like most trail runners they had little extra forefoot cushion which is nice plus of traditional trainers.
Support: 7 like most trailer runners there wasn't allot of ankle support but my foot allways felt snug and supported.
Price: 90 dollars not unreasonable not great.
Durability: 4 after 5 months the tread started coming of and the laces started unraveling which stupidly there is no way to fix on these shoes.
Nike Air Pegasus 2005:
Very nice feel out of the box, good cushion super grippy, very nice ride.
Style: 2 ugly, I dislike white shoes and these are particular ugly.
Grip: 9 Best I have encountered as far as gripping surfaces, somewhat to cushioned though to feel surfaces easily
Cushion: When running perfect super soft, when jumping not as great, hard to feel rails some times and for drops the forefoot cushion felt lacking.
Support: 6 okay not as good as the salomons but not noticable bad either
Price: 80 bucks not cheap but not to bad
Durability: 2, 2 months and the toe is coming apart and the tread is peeling off
Recommendation part of the reason the fell apart so fast on me was because their not designed for runners my size so they might be good shoe for light framed traceur.
Montrail Masai:
Provisional reveiw, Just got these, highly recomended trailer runners
Style: 8 Nice looking the go well with my wardrobe not to attention grabbing
Grip: 7 nice and sticky on dry surfaces not as good on wet surfaces so far, I think it may get better with wear
Cushion: 7 feels okay to do drops on, the foam may be a little to thick though I want to feel closer to the ground.
Support: 9 Really good snug fit good support heel doesn't move.
Price: On sale at the rei outlet for 50 bucks.
Durability: We'll see.
Recommendation: We’ll see
Mad Squid board shorts:
Style: 9 I love my shorts they look nice
Durability: 10 I have been wearing these for ever
Mobility: 8 well there shorts so you expect good mobility and they never really inhibited my movement but they could have been better.
Price: Can’t remember
Gramacci orginal pant:
Style: 9 I loved the way these pants looked very subtle but cool looking.
Durability: 0 I ripped the crotch out of two pairs in a month. I know two other people who did the same thing, and they’re advertised as durable pants. The fabric took a beating everywere else but the crotch was just not designed right.
Mobility: 6 gusseted crotch but since the fabric was just denim.
Price: Around 40 bucks cheap for climbing pants.
REI Adventure pants:
Style: 4 ugly
Durability: 3 got torn at the first jam I used them for
Mobility: 9 basically no restrictions
Price: 30 something nice and cheap
Prana Strech Zion pants:
Style: 9 pretty sweet looking cuff is to wide in my opinion
Durability: Not sure yet, supposed to be good
Mobility: 10 absolutely no restriction
Price: 60 dollars fairly expensive
