Strength Equipment Review Thread

[drizzt]

After reading a review (of sorts) in Steak's journal about wraps, I thought I'd start up a small repository we can all refer to if we're looking for certain equipment. Should help people new to using strength equipment in making a decision on what they should go for

Have you used a great pair of wrist wraps, a crappy bench shirt, or a nice belt? Let everyone know.

A couple of basic rules to keep things tidy:

• Chuck in a score out of 10 (if you want), but back it up with a bit of information on why you've given it that score.
  
• Please no simple "**** is sh!t" posts, explain why you have an opinion on this piece of gear whether it be bad or good.
  
• No "my mate's brother's girlfriend had troubles with it, so I don't like it" - list your first hand experiences - just so we don't get a bunch of people jumping on a brand bashing bandwagon

Simple rules, please follow, and I'll be keeping an eye on 'em

(Note: Bodybuilders please leave your workout glove reviews out of here :poked: :grin:) (nt srs)(kinda)

[drizzt]

I'll get the ball rolling with reviews of some Titan knee wraps I've used/own.

THP (new style): Found them initially tough to use, I'm much more accustomed to the forgiving Titanium fabric, so not only did these not give the bounce I was used to out of the hole, they irritated my leg to the point of a little bit of blood (poor baby!). Initially, I'd say they gave me maybe 15kg carry-over on a very tight wrap.

HOWEVER, after wearing them in a bit, they've stretched out, and I can now get 4 good revolutions out of them over a sub-x style wrapping. The spring I get out of them has increased a decent amount to go along with the locked-into-a-cast feel they give. I'd estimate they're now giving me between 15-25kg. Still a wee bit irritating to wear but that is simply to be expected with this wrap. Looking at maybe using these in comps to replace my Titaniums... I want more time in them (have only really worn them about 10x), but for now, I'd give them an 8/10

THP (old style): Mine are hand-me-downs, so keep that in mind when reading, but brand new I imagine these would've been great. Same kinda feel as the Titanium wrap, but a wee bit tougher, almost a middle ground between the rougher new THP, and the softer Titanium. Have lost a lot of their spring, but still good for maybe 15kg on a very tight wrap. Can just get 4 revolutions over a sub-x style wrap. 6/10

Titaniums: My personal favourite, these were my first wrap. The very first time I used them, I was amazed by the spring out of the hole, so that feeling has become something of a benchmark that I judge wraps by nowadays. Much easier on the legs than the (new) THPs, but without the cast feel, and a little more spring in them. Set a few PBs in these including a 240 at the Auckland Novice comp, they're my fallback wrap for when things get tough. I believe I get anywhere from 15 to THIRTY kilo out of them (going by raw sets versus following wrapped sets), and will be ordering a new pair soon to work in for when my current ones bite the dust. Compared to the 4 revolutions of the THPs, I believe I can get 5 if done incredibly tightly, but can get a very easy 4 (again, sub-x style wrap). 9/10

RPMs: I've had two sets with these (training partner's pair), so I haven't given them a good enough go to properly rate them, but I wasn't terribly impressed with what I got from them. Couldn't get as many revolutions as I could with any of the other wraps (which is the point of the RPMs I think?), felt a bit rougher than the Titaniums, and didn't give much spring at all out of the hole. I'll hold off on a rating, because I haven't exactly given them a fair go, but then again, I'm happy with what I've got, so not sure I'll get back to them in the near future to try again....

Have some Inzer Grippers coming in with the CBC order so I'll put up a review of them when I've had a few rounds with 'em Also as I'm a bit of a gear wh0re ( :pfft: ) I'll follow up with reviews on belt, knee sleeves and squat shoes when I get a chance.

[steak]

Like you suggested bro I'll back up what you've said here but with the grippers added in the loop.

From a previous post..

"Im really enjoying the grippers (have a 2nd pair on the way with our Inzer order) - loads of pop, dont move on your leg and the dont slide against each wrap either. Good warps but I have noticed that I had to cut 4cm off the ends for Nats to make them legal again so Im unsure of the life span but they are still going strong - my "go to" wraps. Not much good if you have childs hands either as they are a bulky wrap to use when rolled up.

The Titan RPMs are a good training wrap for me but I dont get the same support as I do from the Inzer Grippers. About the same revolutions as the grippers and like the grippers I have had to cut a few cm off the end to make them legal for competition. They do slide on the skin a bit and they do slide on themselves quite a bit too. I found after a few months old I was pulling them to max stretch and sold off my 1st pair then to a new lifter as the pop was gone.

The Titan Titaniums IMHO are a better wrap than the RPM although not quite as "stretchy" and slightly less revs per metre. They dont tend to slide about as much as the RPMs and dont seem to lose the stretch as quick.

The Titan THPs are a good honest stiff wrap. I find it hard to wrap myself really tight with these and on the odd occasion I have been wrapped by someone else they havent been strong enough to get a good tight wrap going! I can get them tight enough to cause welts by myself but even then there is more in them. For me they are a good comp wrap or a "go to" wrap when someone forgets to return my grippers and Im lifting heavy. They do slide a little on the leg (not tight enough) and they do slide a little on themselves - again prolly not tight enough. Some people just dont like them and I have brought a couple of lifters to tears when using them. They can hurt a bit if youre not used to them."take them off take them off!"

To rank them for comp....

1 Inzer gripper

1.THP

3.Titanium

4. RPMs

To rank them for training/comfort/ease of use

1. Grippers

2. Titanium

3. RPM

4. THP"

[drizzt]

^Good stuff, yeah I had actually typed it up in your log, and then thought it could be of interest to everyone else too so a review thread could be good :nod:

[tinytraps]

Heres a few things Ive used over the brief time in powerlifting.

CONVICT APT WRIST WRAPS: The black and white convicts are an awesome wrap made by apt. I used the 12" ones although they also have 18" ones too. When new these things were cast iron and if you moved your wrist around too much you would get little welts! Even after 2 years they are still really good. 8/10

THP KNEE WRAPS OLD STYLE: The thps I have are 2 years old. Even after that time they still have a lot of pop in them. I wrap my own knees and can get 5-6 out of a standard spiral. I would guess that I can get maybe 20kg if not a little bit more out of them by myself. If someone else was to wrap me I could get 30. If done tight they can be uncomfortable and they do have a bit of a bite in them so probably not good for someone just starting out. 9/10

TITAN F6 BENCHSHIRT By far my favorite bit of gear that Ive used that now resides at cbc. When I used this shirt I was between 118-120kg with a size 48. My first time in it I pressed 180 to a 1" board. By the time auckland bench champs came around I had hit 170 to the chest and pressed and I could touch with 120 no probs. This shirt gave me roughly 60k carryover, probably more so due to fitting my arch quite nicely. The pop off the chest was amazing and cos of my big guns ( :pfft: ) there was a lot of support right through to lockout. The groove was easy to find and always could press big numbers. Recomended first shirt for anyone new to them. 10/10

TITAN AS KATANA Still to be used so watch this space 8) ?/10

[drizzt]

Quick review on my squat shoes.

Risto Linea Blanca weightlifting shoe - This is my first weightlifting-specific shoe and I'm really happy with it. Colour may not be everyone's taste, but they also do it in black. Very comfortable, sturdy (hand-made) construction, feels like you're locked in tight once the straps are done up.

For a slightly narrower-stanced squatter like myself, it's helped me achieve depth a bit easier than I had been getting in Chucks. Arrives with a nice shoe carry bag (which now houses hockey + tennis balls, and a couple pairs of wraps along with the shoes :shifty:). Shoe laces are a tad short :pfft: But no biggy - just makes me pull them tighter and lock my feet in a bit harder. Sizing instructions given on the site are very good, followed them exactly and my shoes ended up fitting like a glove - I've also got pretty wide feet, so this isn't always a given.

Only small gripe, is a bit of wood has chipped away off the heel - the back of it, not the bottom (which is covered in a thin sheet of rubber). This doesn't effect functionality of the shoe in any way. This is likely my fault, as I do my wraps up with the heel dug into the floor, but I do kind of expect them to be slightly more robust than that - especially seeing as I only use them to squat in (and occasionally bench).

Bonus at the moment - Risto currently have these on special, and international shipping is at a discounted rate. I think at the time (April?) they cost me $250 NZD incl shipping, but with the discounts in place at the moment (waiting to hear back on shipping costs) you could probably land them for under $200 :shock:

With the discount in mind, I'll give it a 9/10 (I like to leave room in scores for future items to beat them :grin:). Highly recommended if you score the discounted rate, in fact, I'm thinking of buying a second pair for comps, and just use my current ones for training :shifty:

[steak]

INZER FOREVER LEVER BELT

Having used prong belts from Outbak, Inzer and a Toro years ago and after a spate of buckle breakages from Outbak and a bad batch they had I went to the Inzer Forever Lever Belt.

Pros

Guaranteed forever..not for life...forever!

Simple, robust design from a well known and reputable brand/company

Good range of colours and finishes.

Built in USA not China

Easy to assemble.

Very easy to use. Lever locks belt in place. No more struggling to get prongs into holes and scratching up or grooving the belt with the prongs. No more having to bend the belt round a post to tighten. The levr takes care of all of this in one easy snap.

Easy to adjust between deadlift and squat settings if needed.

Comes in IPF Legal 10mm and 13mm thicknesses.

Cons

Have to (at this stage) import although I understand there is an Inzer distributor coming to NZ soon \:D/

Have to (possibly) adjust belts lever postion with a screwdriver for tight (squat) setting and slightly looser (deadlift) setting. This is only a 1 min job though so not really an issue.

Best belt I have used.

9/10

[I Declare War]

CRAIN Xtreme - Power Belt with LEVER

Pro's

Very solid construction. Stitching perfect.

Con's

When ordering make sure he's sending you the right colour (I got Blue-White-Red by accident lol people think I'm French and it's not a good time for that.). Also I'd suggest adding a couple of inches to your waist measurement when ordering my belt is on the small size... if I go for a big bulk it probably aint gonna fit.

http://www.crain.ws/crain_belt_pictures ... belt_lever

[HarryB]

CRAIN Xtreme - Power Belt with LEVER

Pro's

Very solid construction. Stitching perfect.

Con's

When ordering make sure he's sending you the right colour (I got Blue-White-Red by accident lol people think I'm French and it's not a good time for that.). Also I'd suggest adding a couple of inches to your waist measurement when ordering my belt is on the small size... if I go for a big bulk it probably aint gonna fit.

http://www.crain.ws/crain_belt_pictures ... belt_lever

Bonjour madame... lol

[I Declare War]

CRAIN Xtreme - Power Belt with LEVER

Pro's

Very solid construction. Stitching perfect.

Con's

When ordering make sure he's sending you the right colour (I got Blue-White-Red by accident lol people think I'm French and it's not a good time for that.). Also I'd suggest adding a couple of inches to your waist measurement when ordering my belt is on the small size... if I go for a big bulk it probably aint gonna fit.

http://www.crain.ws/crain_belt_pictures ... belt_lever

Bonjour madame... lol

[Wookie]

Guy at Gillies got some Risto Oly shoes and cracked the heel in 2 weeks of Olympic lifting. Just throwing that out there.

I've only used Titan Titanium wraps and the red ones (THM?), and have been pretty happy with both. But I don't wrap very tight. Mine are pretty well stretched out now, would get some new ones if I did a comp. I really didn't pay as much attention to wraps as I probably should have. One comp I used a different pair of wraps on each attempt.

[red machine]

Inzer Iron Wraps(knee) Z (tripple red line)

(+) *First wraps i used, 2nd hand pair from vp, love them, nice and stretchy so they are super easy to crank if your going for a max yet still very comfitable and the provide mad pop out of the hole esp when your repping on a lighter weight they just throw me back up (only do if having a lazy day :pfft: ). I'd say i get 10-15kg out of them, but the confidence they give knowing your knees not gunna blast out the side of your leg is worth another 5kg's

*used them a heap now in still providing the same amount of support and pop, they have stretched out abit now so may need a trim b4 next comp. would def recommend for a good starter pair of wraps.

Tommy Kono (TK's) Knee Bands (sleeves)

(+)*Prob the best bit of equipment i have in my gym bag, i use them every squat day from start to finish, they keep the knee so warm sweat pisses down my legs and knee's have been felling better than ever no pain/stiffness since i started using them.

I can put them on and be ready to go with in 1-2 warm up sets, where as b4 id have to do 5 odd sets till i could get going.

Not the support of a wrap but does give confidence and the feeling good support, how ever drop down a size ud prob get some pop and a few coupple of kg's but beware quite hard to put on, but either add some telk or put them on inside out then roll over at the top and your away!

If you shop around you can get some landed form bit under $50 nz, i used bb.com, but some kats are up to $80 +!!

great product with alot of history behind it, would very much recommend esp looking at raw powerlifting.

[drizzt]

Update on the Risto shoes I reviewed above.

While I'm happy with the performance, I feel the quality isn't quite up to scratch. One shoe (not both!) lost a bit of lacquer from the rear... eventually, the rip in it spread (partially my fault for not attending to it asap, I'll take a bit of the heat there) and exposed the wooden sole. This, however, actually happened quite early (about a month - I wasn't even wrapping at that point) into my ownership of the shoes - after paying a couple hundred pingers for a specialist sport shoe, I shouldn't have to be doing maintenace on them not long after first use.

Once the sole had been exposed, things worsened. The rubber begun to seperate from the wood, the wood begun to chip, and now they are pretty much unusable.

I haven't used these shoes for anything except squatting, and the odd Powerclean - these are Oly shoes though, so you'd expect them to stand up to a few sets of Powercleans here and there. The roughest thing I've probably done to them, is wrap my knees in them. My heel is on the floor while I wrap each leg, stable and firm, but I wouldn't say I forcefully dig it into the ground. Also, I don't dig it into wood, or concrete or anything like that - I dig it into the (admittedly, hardish) rubber mats that we have on each of our squat platforms. Obviously I expect the back of the shoes will get a little wear and tear from that (see last photo), I accept that and I do accept some responsibility for it.

BUT, I didn't expect them to fall apart to the extent they have.

As mentioned, the other shoe is fine! One little dimple (from heel on rubber mat when I wrap) and a small chip out of rubber... and that is probably the wear I would expect given the time I've used these shoes.

As it stands, I can't recommend them to Powerlifters who wrap their knees. Hey, they may be good for an oly lifter that doesn't wrap, or a classic lifter, but I would recommend against them if you wrap up! They just simply do not have the durability.

Here are some photos just to show what I'm talking about...

The shoes side by side from the back:

Photos of the damage:

Photo of the "ok" shoe!

I'll revise my review from a 9/10, to a 5/10. They still perform bloody well, but quality and longevity? You think you'd get a bit more for the price you pay...

[drizzt]

Inzer - "True Black Wraps"

(be warned: this will be long :shifty: Skip to summary if you want the cliffs)

Ok, those of you who follow my log will know I took order of four pairs of the True Black Wraps (henceforth referred to as TB) from Inzer last week. Two pairs for myself, two for a couple of House members. My intentions for the two being one for training, one for comp use.

Firstly, the order process was pretty good, shipping was a tad expensive but that isn't really a reason to mark these guys down - if you want their product badly enough, you'll pay to get it here! :nod: And I guess I wanted it bad enough . It also ended up taking only a week from payment confirmation to landing on my desk, so I can't really complain here. Price of the wraps were reasonable, again, compared with other companies I can't complain (but nor will I be hailing their prices as bargain deals).

Once the package had landed on my desk, I opened the box; they were packed nice and snug underneath the couple of t-shirts I had ordered with them.

Good vibe so far. Split my two pairs out for myself, and on my way to the Wrap Roller at The House I dropped the other two off to The Wise One. Then, after rolling them up before a moderately-heavy set of squats, the fun begun...

I wrapped the right knee first - MT and I looked on in amazement as the blackness seemed to keep coming and coming - "awesome" was my first reaction. So I called OB1 over to watch me wrap the left, and see how amazing these wraps are... when I started to struggle to get the same kind of mileage out of it. "Odd", I thought, but went on with the set anyway. Set felt a little uncomfortable, so I asked OB to get out the measuring tape and see if I had just wrapped tighter on one leg than the other (it happens, I guess), or, if one actually outstripped the other for length. Surely not though, these are brand new?

But, different in length they were. And not by a measly centimeter or so - one came in at 2.06m (i.e. out-of-the-box-non-ipf-legal), the other at 1.95m. That is 11cm difference (for the mathematically challenged out there) between two brand new wraps, bundled in the same rubber band. Here is a photo I took just after we measured them up to show the difference:

"Well, ok" I said to OB, "probably just got a dud pair. OB1, let's check the two pairs I gave you".

Again, both of these pairs are unused, and there was a difference in length between the wraps in each bundle (can't remember off the top of my head how much - not as drastic as my pair I believe). Thankfully for these pairs, though, swapping a wrap over from each allowed for two equal-lengthed pairs, albeit one pair a bit longer than the other. But at least we had a bit of consistency going.

However, while measuring the pairs up, we found some moderately bad fabric faulting (for want of a better word) on one of the unused wraps. The thread was lifted in a decent portion of the wrap, exposing the centre. Optimistically, it shouldn't really affect usability (you'll have to ask OB1), but still it's not the kind of quality you'd expect out of a brand new pair of wraps. This didn't show up awesomely on camera (damn all-black wraps), so no photos unfortunately.

Ok, with the above stuff aside, I grabbed my second pair (these ones unused) of wraps the next day, and did a bit of a comparison. Surprise, surprise; lengths weren't the same (4 from 4 now). Not to worry, though, as a wrap from each set matched up ok to make a fairly equal pair. But... I was (and still am) left with a pair that is pretty different length-wise. I am semi-ok with this, because at least I have one equally-lengthed/usable pair, and one that I can potentially trim and use as a training pair. However this obviously isn't as good as two legally-lengthed pairs of wraps.

Here are my two pairs after a shuffle (I believe the centre two were the pair I first used and are in the photo above, the two outside wraps (far left and far right) were together/unused):

And one with my size 13 next to it to give a bit of perspective of the difference:

SO, with all of the initial crustiness out of the way, I was looking forward to just getting on with my "good" pair of wraps and giving them a fair blast. 5 x 5 @ 217.5kg seemed like a reasonable litmus test.

Now, I wrap pretty tight (I have a few people who can vouch for this), but I don't believe I wrap tight enough to damage the fabric on a brand new pair of wraps. And I mean, hey, these are designed for guys to squat heavy in - guys much bigger, and stronger than myself. Surely whatever little old me can do to them is small-fry compared to what they should be designed to take?

But damage is exactly what I found after the first set of five - damage to the fabric along most of the length. MT and I could hear the cracking and popping of the wraps during each rep of my set. Again, not entirely unusual to break them in with that sort of thing out of the box, but I would've expected the kind of damage I have on them after one set to have taken a good few heavy sessions at least. (no pics of this damage right now, can do later if I remember - again, may not show up well on crappy phone camera).

But no, the fun doesn't stop there. Remember how I said this was my good pair? Well, after each set, I noticed that one wrap was getting gradually longer (and easier) to wrap around, where the other I had to pull very tight to get to match the revolutions it's brother had taken. After the 5 sets were completed, the difference between the two wraps rivalled the difference between my "bad" pair of wraps.

So now, after all of that, I'm left with two oddly-lengthed pairs of wraps that have been used no more than a few sets. Inzer don't seem to have an email which I could air my concerns with them on, which is a bit of a hassle for those of us located internationally. So I guess just cut my losses and make do with what I've got

After all of that negativity, surely there can be no good? Well, there is a bit. Behind all of the poor quality, the TB is a decently performing wrap. It does what I expect out of it. I'd suggest it is relatively similar to the THP from Titan, where it locks your knee in very tightly with a cast-iron (and subsequent skin burn!) feel. The feel of the wrap isn't terribly dissimilar between the competitors, but I'd say the THP is slightly stiffer. The TBs don't quite have the rebound out of the hole that I like (ala Titan Titaniums), but that is a matter of personal preference.

I'm racking my brain for more goodness, but that is honestly all I can come up with right now :think:

Summary

The Good

• The wraps perform pretty well, similar to the THP from Titan if you are familiar with that. Possibly a little less-stiff.

The Bad

• Inconsistent wrap lengths - all 4 pairs in my order were uneven.
  
• Poor - and inconsistent - fabric quality. On arrival one had damage to the fabric. After one set of use, another pair took some relatively bad fabric damage too - one wrap in this pair also stretched much farther than the other one did.
  
• Hurt like a b*tch to wrap! Would suggest use of these for 1RM tests, or maybe sub 3 rep sets. 5 x 5 was like rubbing tiger balm lovingly onto your eyeballs. But this is nothing new for a lot of people, comes with the territory.
  
• No email for after-sale support? Wtf? They have a website that delivers product internationally, but no contact email on said website... I don't even... I can't... how do they... :shock:

Overall score, I'd give these a 4/10. It would go up towards a 9 IMHO if the negatives I've listed were tidied up (and that is doable).

And I think that's enough! Any questions or comments are welcome, flame away ha ha :flames:

[tomleegolf]

Great review as always. Very helpful

[steak]

I found Inzer to be hard arsed and pretty slow in delivery and communication is at best non existent. The lever belts, gripper warps, soft suits and RageX shirts are about the only thing that sparks interest these days.

Customer Service 2/10

try this email addy for a faster response. Contact name: Kathleen

kb@inzernet.com

[drizzt]

Great review as always. Very helpful

Cheers Tom, when my fingers start typing they're hard to stop, as you can probably tell :shifty:

I found Inzer to be hard arsed and pretty slow in delivery and communication is at best non existent. The lever belts, gripper warps, soft suits and RageX shirts are about the only thing that sparks interest these days.

Customer Service 2/10

try this email addy for a faster response. Contact name: Kathleen

kb@inzernet.com

Cheers bro, I may see if I can get anything out of them for this, but to be honest, this experience has put me off using their stuff so I'm not sure if I'll bother.

Funny that you mention delivery though, as that was the one thing I expected to be terrible (my Old Man's order took longer than a month to arrive) - but mine took pretty much bang on 7 days to get to me - so it was really one of the only good things about the experience, heh

As an interesting aside: my two "large" t-shirts (same style, different colours) from this order are also inconsistent in their size, one I'm fairly sure is a medium (pretty snug fitting!), the other hangs off kinda loose (what I'd expect from an American large size).

Tags definitely say large on both though :-s

[startinfromscratch]

i ordered inzer tees (2) awhile back with my belt. both are xls, one fits good and the other is 'snug'. plus took about a month, but that was still 2 months less than titan direct lol.

[drizzt]

i ordered inzer tees (2) awhile back with my belt. both are xls, one fits good and the other is 'snug'. plus took about a month, but that was still 2 months less than titan direct lol.

Odd with the t-shirts, huh? Can just think of no reason why there would be different fits of each of the sizes etc, unless tags were mixed up at some point. Glad to see I'm not crazy on this one though!

And yeah, Titan were pretty bad for delivery, and communication with me as well. A little over a month for my only order from them.

At least the gear held together though I guess...

[Phedder]

Wei-Rui Warrior Weightlifting Shoes

As my first pair of weightlifting shoes I have nothing else to compare to, but I'm very happy with the purchase. You get exactly what you'd expect out of a weightlifting shoe. Fits like an athletic shoe, when the straps are done tight it really locks your feet in and provides great stability. I'd suggest going a half size down, I usually wear a size 11 and ordered a 10.5 which feels great, can't help but wonder if a size 10 would be perfectly snug but would hate them to be too small, and as a 10.5 they're still very stable, feet don't shift around at all etc. Heel height is .75inches which seems standard for most WL shoes, and feels great for me.

I was previously squatting in chucks, and while I never had trouble with depth, I never felt entirely comfortable or stable. I squat with a shoulder width stance, and with the addition of the Wei-Rui's my only issue is going too deep :shifty: I still need to re learn the feel for just below parallel in these shoes, but even sinking them far below I feel very comfortable and supported, and having the solid raised heel to push off feels great.

Some pros and cons;

Pros:

• Price! I got them for $125NZD shipped. The next cheapest I could find was I believe $170-180 from QWA. That was with an additional 15% off coupon, just email Maxbarbell and ask if they have any running coupon codes.
  Full leather construction
  Great fit, padded in the right areas and tight where you want it.
  Well made - I've only had a months use out of them, but there are no signs of any wear and from inspecting the shoes I can't see where any issues may arise. Leather is double stitched, and the heel is a dense compressed rubber so no splitting or chipping like wood can.
  

Cons:

• Smell When I first opened the box it reeked of that Chinese $2 store smell. With the addition of sweat and chalk, that's now faded
  Shoe laces and strap are a tad long. Laces aren't an issue, but occasionally the tip of the strap has wrapped under the sole of the shoe. Easily fixed with some scissors and a needle and thread, but hasn't been enough of an issue for me to bother.

I'd definitely recommend these shoes to anyone looking for their first pair of weightlifting shoes, or even someone looking for a quick and cheap replacement (shipping took 10 days IIRC). Although I haven't tried any other shoes, I can't imagine spending the extra money on a mid-level shoe that does the exact same thing. The Wei-Rui's do everything you expect of them, feel great and appear quite well made. If I ever end up buying another pair of weightlifting shoes, I'd be going for some top of the line Adidas or Nikes.

8/10 - laces and straps could be better, as well as styling, but price can't be beaten and they do the job well