Shoe Review — Greats G-Knit

I like shoes. Not in an unhealthy way, but I own more shoes than I need.

Growing up I was into basketball shoes in a big way. Never went hard into a Jordan phase because I felt they were a bit too mainstream. But I had at least one colorway of each edition of the Air Penny line. For a brief spell I rocked some Fila Grant Hill action. I had the Shaq rainbow shoes and the Shawn Kemp zig-zag shoes and even the Anthony Mason maze shoes. Worst shoes in this era: Gary Payton’s Glove 2. Favorite shoes of this era: Adidas Kobe 1 or the Pippen 2.

I don’t have any practical use for this kind of footwear any more but I did buy a pair of limited release Jordans last summer for resale purposes.

Now, I mostly rely on a strong rotation of black oxfords, brown oxfords, lace-up boat shoes, laceless loafers and one pair of athletic shoes.

I took a gamble a few weeks ago and ordered a pair of Greats. I’ve heard a lot about these bad boys on various podcasts/websites and I’m a sucker for straight-to-consumer retailers. That being said, I’m somewhat picky on shoe selection so as alluring as the ultra-high-end runners were with leather interiors, I went for something more modest at first swipe. I signed up for the site, got a coupon code and saved some money on my first order.

Some things that are unique about Greats:

1. You can’t — to my knowledge — buy them anywhere in store. It’s all online.
2. They do the thing where everything is always “on sale.” The Pronto, which is the high end runner linked earlier, is shown as on sale for $199 relative to a price point of $475+. It’s always that way. The shoes I ordered were $89 (prior to various discount codes) relative to a crossed-out price of $150+.
3. Greats’ business model is clearly facing challenges with inventory because I actually tried to order the shoes I wanted earlier but they were sold out. When they became available they offered a “bulk” discount for buying more than one pair. A little bit odd.
4. They’re really sharp looking shoes in various styles and I kind of like the idea of “unbranded” (i.e. no huge swoosh running down the side) shoes.

So I ordered the G-Knit in the cadet colorway.

I’m trying these bad boys out for the first time today and here are some observations.

Overall, the most favorable impression is that this shoe looks exactly like the pictures. I like how it looks in the pictures (that’s why I bought it), so that’s a good thing. In that regard, there’s a lot to like. The lines are simple, the colors are rich blues but subtle enough to blend in. The fabric of the upper looks appropriate to a shoe and not like a sweater (which was my fear). The Vibram FreeRide outsole is stout and likely the most impressive feature of the shoe.

But, thus far the Greats are just “good.” A few complaints from the first few hours of wear:

First, there were too many minor quality issues upon first inspection. The “Greats” label on the tongue doesn’t appear taught in the photos of the shoe (below), but it’s much looser than I would have anticipated. It loops up and above the tongue quite awkwardly. Seems like careless craftsmanship as my left shoe suffers from this ailment to a greater degree than the right.

Secondly, glue residue was visible in a handful of places. Again, this just points to sloppy assembly on a shoe that per the Greats website is simply assembled.

In terms of wearing, the knit upper creates some problems.

1. If you lace the shoe tightly to your foot (not excessively so, just appropriately so for walking/activity), the shoe gets progressively tighter. It’s like one of those Chinese finger traps. In a way this makes sense as the priority for the material has to be form/support and the opposite (fabric stretching excessively) would render the shoe shapeless. But it’s a real annoyance. I’ve had the shoes on for about two hours and had to loosen them three times already.
2. Also, the fabric is prone to bunching. That’s to be expected I suppose (again, the upper is basically flannel), but because the lace holes are directly on the fabric (as opposed to another, more stable receptacle), 100% of the bunching occurs at the middle part of the shoe near the laces. As a result, the middle portion of the shoe protrudes upward and draws attention to the laces. Not a good look. And this can’t be worked around. Again, the fiber used is fairly stringent, so the slack can’t be disbursed.
3. Finally, the combination of the items above make this shoe much less comfortable without socks than I hoped. I hate socks. I was wanting this to be an athletic-style shoe I could wear sockless. Unfortunately, in order for the shoe to fit snugly without cutting off circulation (seriously, my feet keep falling asleep), I have to tie the shoe on pretty damn loosely. As a result of that space, the shoe becomes quite hot without socks. Further, the bunching of material rubs the top of the foot in non-normal rubbing spots. Rubbing on the toes or back of the heel is to be expected with new shoes and no socks, but at the top of the foot? That’s weird. So, I’m wearing socks. That’s not the worst thing in the world, but for a shoe made of a knit material, it seems like sockless should be more viable.

Again, I think the shoes are Goods not Greats. With discounts and shipping included, these came to my door for about $70. I think they are a decent shoe for that price and they may grow on me, but my concern with a relatively unknown brand is that these shoes have already put their best foot forward. At this point, I don’t anticipate saying, “those shoes got better everytime I wore them.” With that in mind, the price — discounted from an “on sale” price as it was — seems a bit high.

The general aesthetic is pleasing, and for $70 the Vibram sole is really nice and keeps me from outright calling these overpriced.

But I can’t hide my disappointment. If they’d met expectations I would have considered a higher end model like the Pronto down the road. But given the disappointing performance of this cloth shoe, I’m not sure that I have confidence in Greats pulling off a runner with a leather interior.