Back in late April, Goodyear Footwear hit me up seeing if we would like to review a pair of their shoes. Of course I said yes because, FREE SHOES!, and I had noticed Goodyear Footwear on Facebook earlier this year and thought they were pretty cool looking shoes. A week later a pair of black Ori size 9 shoes arrived and it was time to review.
Unfortunately, I was days away from getting married then leaving the country for two weeks on my honeymoon… So what did I do? I took them with and put over 90 miles on them in the ultimate shoe test! Oh, and I drove them on the simulator when I got back of course, because Inside Sim Racing. Lets see how they fared.
Simulator Provided by Next Level Racing
Racing Heritage
I love racing and I love showing that I’m a race fan everyday. But I don’t want to look like a walking billboard in a rainbow of colors. Adult John likes to dress nicely and I want it to be proud to show off the inner racer in me, and that’s what a Goodyear shoe does. It also helps that it’s good looking, which brings us to design.
Design
The Goodyear Footwear Ori shoe is a classy looking shoe. I really like the brand restraint used, with the Goodyear logo only popping up here and there. And when it does pop-up, have to say, the Goodyear logo looks pretty sharp. The shoe even has a sporty shape and nice touches such as waxed laces and a flat tongue.
Price
You can’t beat $39.99. But does that mean you’re sacrificing quality?
Quality
From my unprofessional eye, these things arrived in better construction than a lot of other shoes I’ve owned. The stitching is nice, the synthetic and leather that the shoe is made out of also feels and looks nice. As I mentioned before – being a former hockey player – I really appreciate the feel, look and functionality of the wax laces.
But how did it hold up to the 90+ miles I put on them bouncing around all sorts of different terrain in Italy?
The Italian Job
I had my concerns going into the trip. I don’t see the Ori as a tennis shoe, as in a shoe you should be running and jumping and exercising in. I see them as more of a casual shoe to wear as you go about your day but take off when it’s time to go to the gym. With that said, I wore them for 90% of my trip, with no complaints
But, there were two instances when foot pain made me change over to my tennis shoes. The cobble stones of Florence and Rome. Maybe it was the not fun experience of dragging my suitcase 2 miles from the rental car drop off to our Airbnb in Florence the day before, but my feet just weren’t having it the next day. Same could be said after a 10+ mile day exploring Rome.
So the thin-ish soles of the Ori shoes aren’t made of magic. But considering how many days of back-to-back-to-back abuse they took, and maybe someone being a little dehydrated from all the travel – apparently bread and gelato isn’t hydrating? Who knew! – I think they held up relatively well to a task that probably should be taken on by not only tennis shoes but high quality tennis shoes.
As for how they looked after my trip to Italy, one of the first things I did was point the camera at them when i got back. The biggest issue I saw was some stitching that had come undone, which I’m pretty sure happened from inadvertent contact with my suitcase as I was bounding through the streets of Florence.
But considering how much they went through, I think they held up relatively well.
But Can It Sim Race?
Besides being a pretty good general shoe, the Ori actually moonlights as a pretty good sim racing shoe as well. I will not make the claim that the the Ori is better than my Alpinestars karting boots, but they aren’t much worse, and are a whole lot cheaper. Thanks to the thin soles, specifically at the ball of the foot, they become very useable sim racing shoes.
I was testing out the Next Level Racing F1GT cockpit and thought to myself, “Ok, time to take off the Alpinestars and put on the Goodyears so I can see how they are.” Then I looked down and I had actually been using the Goodyears the whole time. If I’m having a hard time noticing a difference between the feel of the two, then that’s a pretty good sign that the Goodyears can get it done.
The only reason I say that I still prefer the Alpinestars over the Goodyears is that they breath a little better with all that mesh and they are a little thinner which is nice on pedals that are mounted close to one another. But if I didn’t already have a pair of driving shoes, the $40 Goodyears make a compelling argument against the $120 Alpinestars.
They really may be the best inexpensive driving shoes around.
Final Thoughts
You can probably tell by now that I was pretty impressed by the Goodyear Footwear Ori. Not only are they a nice shoe but can also moonlight as a sim racing shoe, and all that for the impressively low price of $39.99.
Complaints? No big ones. They weren’t perfect during my Italy trip, but again, I really put them through the ringer with the amount of walking I did, so I don’t hold it against them. In “normal” use they’ve been just fine.
Some people may not like the black or white color options but I don’t like colored shoes so they don’t bother me. Plus if you do prefer color, Goodyear is coming out with more colors in August.
One complaint that I’ve seen online is that the goodyearfootwearusa.com website only has them in size 7.5 – 10 which is a pretty small size selection. I spoke to Goodyear Footwear and they said that they had size 11, 12 and 13 but they sold out quickly and are working on restocking them.
Besides that, I’m really impressed by the Ori from Goodyear Footwear. I’m definitely going to keep rocking them as my everyday shoe.
If you’re interested in the Ori – or any other Goodyear Footwear shoes – goodyearfootwearusa.com is running a 15% off code if you enter SIMRACING (all caps, one word) at checkout.
