FOOTWEAR FOCUS ROAD TEST
Prospecs trainers put a spring into Joan Collet’s step!
B
ubble gum! That was my first reaction as I took the Prospecs W Power trainers out of the box. I don’t know if you remember when they sold pink bubble gum, well, that was the same shade of pink used in the smart looking trainers I was being asked to test!
The smart bubble gum pink and grey sneakers arrived just before I was
setting off to work at the Horse of the Year Show at National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. I could have put off the road test until I got back when I could have tested them on, well, the road. But, remembering past years at the NEC, I recalled the hard, cold concrete
floors that I had to pace working for Townfields, the saddlers. Now some of you will have spotted my use of the term “hard” concrete as if there is such a thing as soft concrete (other than when it hasn’t set!). Concrete is hard but when you have to stand on it for day after day after day the hardness and coldness creeps into your feet and up your legs and into your very soul! That’s when it becomes hard, cold concrete. So what better place to test these trainers? Would I like to have tested them walking to the shops
where I could indulge my passion for make up and clothes, or even doing the weekly shop, it might take the torture out of Tesco or masochism out of Morrisons, or the weight out of Waitrose? Would I have preferred to stride along the country lanes breathing in the late summer air? Would I like to have tested them walking to the station
to catch the commuter train? Yes, all those even walking to the station, because almost anything, walking on nails or hot coals, would have been preferable to walking the hard concrete floors of the NEC. HOYS is a sort of Crufts for horses.
There are multiplicity of classes for almost everything from Arabs to Zweibrüers through Hunters and Dartmoor Ponies on the way. Some of you will recall I recently tested a pair of Wellington boots at Blenheim Palace. While I don’t get to see very much at either show because I am working, at least Blenheim is in the country and has that the beautiful backdrop of the palace. The sprawling NEC seems to me to be a monument to what is wrong with architecture. So, as you will have gathered, I was not looking forward to the week of
selling saddlery and having to walk to the lorry park, that seemed miles and miles away, to collect stock we needed. I have decided that I will never work at the NEC after this year’s HOYS.
I came away with a furious cough and cold from the over heated exhibition halls and having to go out in the chill to collect the stock. But, my bubble gum pink Prospecs W Power trainers were the saving grace! I don’t know what they do to make them so bouncy, but when I walked I felt I was going boing, boing, boing as if there were springs in the shoes. It made me think of the pictures we see of men walking on the moon.
“My bubble gum pink Prospecs W Power trainers were the saving grace! I don’t know what they do to make them so bouncy, but when I walked I felt I was going boing, boing, boing as if there were springs in the shoes. It made me think of the pictures we see of men walking on the moon.”
The suspension and cushioning protected me from the hard, cold concrete floors and as a result at the end of each day I was not as tired as I remember being at previous HOYS. The five days I was there, I reckon, was a pretty rigorous test for the shoes and the boing, boing was as fresh on the last day as the first. So all those activities that I said I would prefer to be doing: shopping, walking down a country lane, or stepping out to the station every morning, would be a cinch in my pink bubblegum Prospecs shoes!
DETAILS:
PROSPECS W Power – Designed for the unique stresses and impact of walking, the PROSPECS W Power line departs from standard running shoes to enhance walking-based exercise and bring added comfort and support though its unique Move Frame Technology.
Retail price £94.95 for womens and £99.95 for mens. Wholesale price £47.50
A recent consumer survey by advertising agency LG Ad, showed that PROSPECS W Power outranked Nike, Adidas and Reebok as the top sports walking shoe brand in Korea.
Email:
duncan@zestactiveagencies.co.uk Tel: 01823 216172/ 07551 241812
16 • FOOTWEAR TODAY • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 Call for Nominations –Don’t forget to nominate by 30th November
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