What's your worst gear?

eltonionieltonioni ✭✭✭

Name and shame the junk you bought. 

I have a pair of Inov8 Trailcross 255 that fit me like a pair of clogs. The tread is fantastic for moist trails so I keep trying them occasionally but I can't get them stay put on my feet for love nor money. One day the bog monster will eat a shoe miles from home and that will be that. 

Mrs E also has a Karrimor water bottle belt. Say no more. 

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Comments

  • VDOT52VDOT52 ✭✭✭
    They are know to be a fairly wide shoe(I've even had them recommended to me for my flippers).

    Did you not try them on before you bought them ? (it is it as if the uppers stretch).

    If not this thread should be about bad shopping habits and not bad gear.
  • eltonionieltonioni ✭✭✭

    Worst gear not bad gear. image I'm sure that somebody somewhere loves them but they are junk to me. 

  • Anything Karrimor. In a fit of apparent stupidity, I once assumed that it couldn't be that bad, and bought several items for an actual clearance price (as opposed to the normal Sports Direct "discount").

    It was all horrible. It all ended up getting thrown out. It's not even a case of "buy cheap, buy twice", as I bought some amazingly nice technical tops in a Uniqlo sale for a few quid each at one point. No, with Krappimor, it's more "buy utter shite, get utter shite", which is less catchy.

    Obviously, since then, having found out about the full extent of Mike Ashley's business practises, I will actively avoid enriching him- but even before then, that would have been a harsh lesson in avoiding his various tat.

  • I didn't actually pay for it, but the worst piece of technical gear I've owned would be the VLM finishers shirt from a few years ago - the black one, which was their first attempt at having a 'technical' shirt.  Thick, heavy, way too big.  Just rubbish.

  • Oh I remember that one Dave - worst tee shirt evaaah. Not even in the approximate shape of a person. You'd have thought they'd have had a human around to put it up against before they made 30,000 ?



    I did have a lovely Karrimor fleece from years ago. Wore it until it went threadbare.

    I've had two bottle belts and not got on with either of them.



    The LM Adidas shorts can be a bit patchy too. Each year they change the design completely. Some years are awesome - and some years are utter rubbish. You'd expect Adidas to know what they're doing - especially with what is essentially the same product. All they have to do is change a colourway and change the badge each year and they'd sell.
  • ZouseZouse ✭✭✭

    eltonioni - you need those tiny gaiters that ultra-types use. They ain't just for preventing crap getting in, they're also for holding your shoes on in the squelch.

    My karrimor gear appears to be indestructable, light, breathable & not too smelly. Maybe I got lucky with the wimminz range?

    What's caused me the most swearing is my bloody Nike+ GPS Sportswatch. I can't fault their customer service, but I can see why they've abandoned the hardware. It throws a strop on most runs and is no longer on speaking terms with the satellite, but it doesn't let you know this until you try & upload the run when back home. When it does track, it's inaccurate and underestimates distance, time and pace.

    It's designed to fit larger wrists - although it wraps around mine, the increased tension is ripping the strap from the watch, which is a bummer cos the strap has the USB gubbins in it. When I plug it in to the laptop, I can't use the other port as the watch is too bulky. It takes hours to charge, and if left plugged in will blue-screen the laptop if it dares to go to sleep mode.

    After 5 hours in GPS mode it will faint & require smelling salts.

    It's manufacturer won't give you access to the guts of your data, just an overview which is heavily Mac-oriented, and so refuses to work properly with Android or the rest of the world. If a 3rd part writes a script to release data from the Nike black box, the Corporation shuts them down - so once again you can only access an overview of your data via Nike software.

    It's taken me 15 months, but I have now ordered a garmin.

     

  • Oooh, I just remembered New Balance 1260v4, which I have enjoyed less than any other running shoe, I still shudder at the memory.

    I was looking for something really cushy for my rotation, and was still fretting slightly with magical thinking over pronation, having being told that my flappy feet were more wonky than they are in reality. 

    After a lot of poking about to find someone who had UK 12.5 available (Amazon, weirdly), I ordered some. Maybe taking a week to send them from Germany, but then sending 12 by mistake, which I could barely even get on my feet (they seem to run very short) should have been an omen.

    When I finally got a pair that I could wear, I tried taking them for a spin, and my goodness, what a miserable experience. It was like wearing American cars on your feet- they were huge, stiff, over-engineered and heavy. They did have a lot of cushioning, but a lot of it seemed to be around the heel, and it was just completely dead, like running with damp sandbags on your feet.. no bounce or energy return at all. After a kilometre or two, I was actually angry with my own feet- which is an unusual feeling, to say the least.

    Not the best experience. It will be a long time before I dare to try anything New Balance again, even though they have several bazillion different models in the air.

  • I've got a couple of pairs of karrimor shorts which seem to be almost indestructible, which is a bit annoying as I don't particularly like them and would quite like an excuse to bin them and get some others.  They're not too bad though - do the job.

    Worst item I have is an Asics fuji long sleeved top.  It has an impermeable panel on the front which prevents any moisture escaping from you chest and you just end up being really uncomfortably sweaty on the front - even if the rest of you is quite cold.

    I wore it for a trail marathon towards then end of last year and ran much of the distance with it hitched up over my belly like Britney Spears or something.

    It's great in the rain though when you're completely wet though anyway.

  • limperlimper ✭✭✭

    Possibly the bra I am currently wearing. It seems to create as much boobage on the back as it covers on the front. And I think I dislocated my thumbs trying to put it on.

  • KenbroKenbro ✭✭✭

    Definitely has to be New Balance fresh foam shoes. They seemed like the right pair of shoes for me (they even come up as the recommended pair on the wiggle shoe finder), however they completely changed my gait. I am a heel striker and they quickly wore out at the toes. I struggled to run more than 6 miles at a time woithout my legs hurting and was constantly aching inbetween runs, which I had put down to lack of fitness. Finally decided to ditch them and get something new and miraculously breezed through 12 mile runs and all the aches in my legs disappeared. I was amazed at the difference the wrong shoes made. Currently enjoying my Mizuno waverunners.

     

    I also bought a tomtom cardio 2 watch for my wife at christmas, because she wanted a sportswatch with a built in heartrate monitor. Compared to my Garmin the funtionality and software is third rate (calling it second rate seemed somewhat generous).

  • VDOT52VDOT52 ✭✭✭
    I think the fresh foam is definitely hard and if you are not heavy then you won't get much comfort from it. I suffered s bit at first but seem to have hit the swing of them. At 13st (plus a half) i have to really hammer a run to enjoy the fresh foam 1080. That said I love them for walking the dog and kicking about in general and as I have worn them more they have grown on me.



    My worst kit is a St neots half marathon tshirt from last year. I have worn it twice but it is a very snug medium and the material feels like a nylon onion sack. Just shows what a change of organiser does to a race.
  • Zouse wrote (see)

    (Argh the lameass edit control just unquoted the text, and there's no way to see/edit the tags yourself, imagine this next bit is Zouse)

    My karrimor gear appears to be indestructable, light, breathable & not too smelly. Maybe I got lucky with the wimminz range?

    (End quote)

    Hmm, it wasn't that I wore any of my Krappimor out, it just was so crappy that it needed to go, to avoid further off-pissing. The top appeared to be made of Agar Gel and constantly got stinky, the gloves were horribly cobbled and catchy high-friction fabric.. and the shorts had a weirdly "off" cut, and terrible liner which caused discomfort and chafing in bad places. It all failed badly. Had I waited for it all to fall to bits, that stuff would have ruined many perfectly good runs- which seemed more pressing as an issue.

  • loulabellloulabell ✭✭✭
    Zouse , the gaiters us ultra types wear are in indeed excellent for holding your shoes on in sticky sucking mud image as are compression knee length socks to stop your legs being shredded into grated carrot effect in undergrowth during ultra / trail runs image

    As for worst kit ? Got to be the UD drink bottles that nearly took my front teeth out by merely trying to get a ml of water from it ! :0 .... That and any race Tshirt made of cotton ... No. No no no , I do not want to run wearing a wet flannel on my person :/ ... Tech material only please race organisers image
  • loulabellloulabell ✭✭✭
    Lou diamonds .. I now have disturbing images now of you as a running Britney .. Scarred, mentally scarred ....
  • From time to time I buy a pair of split shorts to look like a proper runner. I've tried Nike and Adidas. Whatever the brand it ends up looking like I've run with a cheese grater between my upper thighs.

    Also, VLM finishers t-shirts in general. Clearly Adidas make them deliberately badly to try and entice you to buy their expensive VLM range.

  • literatinliteratin ✭✭✭

    I thought last year's VLM finisher t-shirt was quite good. It's one of the only race t-shirts I actually wear for training.

    My crappest kit is a pair of Sweaty Betty shorts that turn see-through when wet (not, I don't think, a deliberate 'feature'). I still wear them, but only when I'm at least 97% sure it's not going to rain.

  • literatin wrote (see)

    I thought last year's VLM finisher t-shirt was quite good. It's one of the only race t-shirts I actually wear for training.

     

    Agree - it's actually quite a tasteful design and a reasonably good fit.

  • My worst purchase was probably a montane beanie hat.  Loved it the first time I wore it, but then put it in the wash (sports wash mind), and it shrunk to about 2/3rds the size, which means it'll now just about fit my 10 year old son.  image

     

  • Karrimor running shoes - absolute rubbish!  They should stick to walking boots/shoes of which I have had a couple of pairs - excellent.

  • senidMsenidM ✭✭✭
    A nike asymmetric sports watch (offset so you can read it from an easy angle), worked well, very big numerals (why I bought it, failing eyesight) but the strap came adrift.



    Went back to the Nike store in Oxford St, repairs? don't be silly, buy another one Sir, and as its a nike watch local jewellers just look blank, so perfectly good watch, that I can't actually wear.



    So I now wear a 7.99 watch from decathlon and when the batteries run out, will buy another one (4 years and counting)
  • Pudge wrote (see)

    My worst purchase was probably a montane beanie hat.  Loved it the first time I wore it, but then put it in the wash (sports wash mind), and it shrunk to about 2/3rds the size, which means it'll now just about fit my 10 year old son.  image

     

    Ha ha.  My husband bought a Montane beanie for skiing.  He loved it.  I washed it and it shrunk several sizes too, but the upside it fits my little pin head.  image

  • havent had too many....I wanted a decent pair of trail shoes so went and bought some inov*..tried them on in the shiop and they felt ok

     went for a 4 mile run and by mile 2 my feet were blistered on the sides......the toe box was really narrow..

    neither the shop I bought them from or inov8 were interested. 

    I even enquired if inov8 had any others in their range with wider toeboxes that I could try and the company didnt bother answering.......I went back to my cheap asics fugi trabucos..

  • RicFRicF ✭✭✭

    Some sort of tech 'T' shirt which I used a voucher to lay claim to.

    Too small, sweat box type of article. Should have just got socks.

    🙂

  • Go CazGo Caz ✭✭✭

    Shock Absorber Run bras which are impossible (for me anyway) to fasten without the help of someone else.

  • ClagClag ✭✭✭

    Was just about to say exactly that Go Caz! Shock Absorber run bra - ordinarily I live the Max bras, they're great, but the run bra is the most ridiculous thing ever! It's impossible to put on over your head and can't be fastened at the front and turned around. It's just not cool to turn up for a run and ask for help to get your bra on, all the more so when even with two people it's still ranking highly on the Krytpon Factor challenge scale.

    In shoes, it was the Mizuno Wave; as with other shoes, I'm sure others love them, but I just couldn't get on with them in real life (rather than the dreadmill in the shop); they're too skinny and hurt my feet on anything over 6 miles.

  • Nike FuelBand. It was a fantastic idea, the product looked really good and I wanted it work for me but sadly it didnt. The first FuelBand strap broke mid-run and subsequently, whilst Nike replaced it, the second one suffered from poor battery life.

     

    In hindsight, I think Nike took the best strategy i.e leave electronics to folks like Garmin who have the expertise. That said, It's a petty they haven't really pushed further beyond Nike+ in connected fitness (unlike Under Armour and others).

  • Nike FuelBand. It was a fantastic idea, the product looked really good and I wanted it work for me but sadly it didnt. The first FuelBand strap broke mid-run and subsequently, whilst Nike replaced it, the second one suffered from poor battery life.

    In hindsight, I think Nike took the best strategy i.e leave electronics to folks like Garmin who have the expertise. That said, It's a petty they haven't really pushed further beyond Nike+ in connected fitness (unlike Under Armour and others).

  • booktrunkbooktrunk ✭✭✭

    Do the top clasp up, put over your head, and then do up the bottom back clasp.

    Clag wrote (see)

    Was just about to say exactly that Go Caz! Shock Absorber run bra - ordinarily I live the Max bras, they're great, but the run bra is the most ridiculous thing ever! It's impossible to put on over your head and can't be fastened at the front and turned around. It's just not cool to turn up for a run and ask for help to get your bra on, all the more so when even with two people it's still ranking highly on the Krytpon Factor challenge scale.

     

  • I do the bottom clasp up at the front and then swirl around and manage to do the top one up

     

  • booktrunkbooktrunk ✭✭✭

    I'll have to try that!

     

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