When I became the first Nike athlete for the sport of CrossFit, it was an unbelievable honor. To be able to help develop the first pair of Metcons was one of the coolest things I have ever been a part of. I believe they still have the first prototypes of the shoes on display somewhere at Nike HQ, which mean’s it is a no brainer that the shoe I helped get to develop, is my favorite training shoe. But which version?

The first Metcon was amazing, but as anyone and anything, it had some room for improvement after people put them through the ringer and they were getting frayed from climbing up and down ropes. So when the Metcon 2 came out, it was still the sharpest looking shoe out, but it had the feedback us as athletes, and people as fitness-goers, asked to be put into it. The first thing they fixed was upper (or the forefoot) to make it more abrasion resistant, to help with the wrap of the feet when rope climbing so they wouldn’t fray.

After that, they added a heel clip to help with Handstand Push Ups, to make sure you didn’t scuff up the wall as much, but also so that the heel wouldn’t stick to the wall when kipping quickly, or when your heels would remain in contact with the wall for a long time doing strict handstand push ups.

Those two improvements, with the addition that once the shoes broke in a bit, they could be used for running and it didn’t feel like having a cardboard training shoe on, made the Nike Metcon 2 unmatched. Some of my favorite colorways were the all black, and the Blues. Can’t beat those slick looking colorways.

What shoes do you guys like the most?

– JB