Product Review: Nike Tiempo Mystic III

After my last product review about a year back, the fine guys from SoccerPro offered another pair of soccer shoes for me to review. This time round things didn't go as smoothly on my side, and I have to apologise to the lads from SoccerPro for the delay in getting this review out.

After the last experience with Adidas, I went ahead and chose from a stable of Nike soccer shoes instead. After much deliberation I settled on a pair of Nike Tiempo Mystic III.

As with last year, the shoes came sealed and delivered within a fortnight. This time round I got my camera ready and snapped a few shot. So instead of showing a generic photo pilfered from a website, I've got my own photos to show this time round.




Erm...just that the bulk of the photos didn't turn out very well. (Note to self: Need a better camera) So only two managed to make the grade.

As with last year, I'll go with the same format of listing the cons followed by the pros to hopefully make it an easier read and to prevent myself from rambling on.

Cons
- The foldover tongue is fastened over the laces to the shoe with velcro, but the problem is that during the game, it comes loose easily. There really should have a larger velcro surface to fasten the tongue more securely to the shoe. My laces kept coming loose while running with the ball. This is probably the only worthwhile complaint I can make for the shoe.

- Two words : School shoes. It looks like a pair of school shoes. Not the type you'd wanna wear out for any other occasion.

Pros
- Superbly comfortable. This is one of the rare shoes that didn't give me blisters after the first try. The only other brand that comes marginally close to this comfort level at the first try is probably Puma, but even then that's abit stretching it. Seriously awesome level of comfort. Nike has outdone themselves here.

- Super light. Maybe it's just me, but I found the Tiempo extremely light on the feet. There are some soccer shoes that just weigh you down, but I hardly felt the Tiempo. I felt I was moving faster and my little jinks and stepovers were significantly easier. It could also be a psychological thing since I've also lost abit of weight in the past month or so.

- Superb control. I rank the Tiempo rather highly for close control.

Conclusion
For anyone looking at the Nike Tiempo Mystic III, all I can say is that it's a really good pair of shoes at a reasonable price. It does look awful and with a white pair, like the I have currently have, it's incredibly difficult to wash. But if you can overlook the general ugliness of the shoe, there are alot of good points to it.

Once again, I need to thank the guys at SoccerPro for giving me this opportunity to try out yet another wonderful product from their site.