TheShaun reviews the Wilson Trance All Court

[TheShaun]

http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/descpageMSWILSON-WTACMWN.html

Thanks to TW for giving me the chance to playtest these shoes.

I logged approximately 10-12 hours of court time in these shoes and here are my impressions:

Fit: Firstly I should say that my foot type is a regular width with a slightly lower arch on the left foot than on the right. I found the fit to be true to size and with a nice heel pocketing feel in the heel and ankle area.

Comfort: In my opinion these shoes had a long breaking period. I wore them around the house and out on errands for at least 5 hours but they didn't really get comfortable till I got moving on the court.

Once they were broken in I found the cushioning to be satisfactory but not out of this world. All of my play was done on indoor hard courts. If you're going to log many continuous hours, these shoes may be better suited to softer courts.

Stability: I found no problem with the stability or traction of this shoe. As I mentioned before, my heel felt really locked in and the mid foot is supported by plastic that goes up the sides of the shoe. As well as a hard plastic shank on the sole in the mid foot. No problem with the starting and stopping associated with tennis as well as the lateral movements. These don't have a low riding feel like that of a Nike Cage but that's not much of an issue for me.

Construction: These shoes feature a very beefy sole with an aggressive herringbone design that makes it's way up to protect the toe for you toe draggers out there. The upper is a combination of leather or synthetic leather in the fore foot and a mesh type material on the tongue and rear half of the shoe. The tongue is secured in place by two elastic type straps on the inside of the shoe, similar to a uni-tongue but not. The breathability was OK, but for me the only footwear with enough breathability is flip flops. I can't comment on the durability but I would imagine it to be quite high.

Style: Well.... it took me a while to warm up to the look of these shoes. They are conservative and classy. I feel a little colour pop would help, maybe a red Wilson W or customize it yourself with a change of shoelace colour.

Over all impression: I think Wilson hit a home run with the stability of this shoe, especially in the heel. If you're one of those people who has a problem with heel slippage you may want to have a look at this one. The build quality appears to be second to none and I would guess that the out sole will last a very long time. My only negative for this shoe would be the extra long break in period and the lack of cushioning that a hard court only player might need, but this could be solved with some gel insoles.

 

[drakulie]

TheShaun, nice review.

Did you get commments from other players about the shoes??

During the tourney (Ladies Checket Cup) last week I wore them exclusivley, and lots of players kept asking me where I got the shoes? I was a bit surprised so many people really liked the look of the shoe.

 

[TheShaun]

Drak,

nothing much in the way of comments. just from my playing partner who was rather fond of the look.

 

[Katlion]

How'd you get to demo the shoes?

 

[LPShanet]

Like The Shaun, I also playtested these shoes. I found many of the same things as he did. Overall, they seem to be very good value at their current price point. They offered a lot of the stability and features of a top of the line shoe, but at the price point of a "take-down", such as the adidas Tirand. My complaints (which are relatively minor) related to the degree of cushioning and to the type of synthetic leather used, which was a bit stiff and caused some pinching during the breakin period. Other than that, they're pretty darn solid.

I will be posing a full comprehensive review in its own thread in the "Shoes and Apparel" board soon.

 

[Richie Rich]

decent enough but for $80 there are much better shoes in the liquidation section, IMO anyway. thanks for posting the review.

 

[bertrevert]

Well is $80 USD that far off top-of-the-line or not? Seems to me like a proper proce alright, but that's when I've converted that into AUD - we inevtiable pay a heck of a lot for shoes in this country anyway.

Wilson shoes I've loved in the past but recently have begone to wonder if they're all they're cracked up to be or whether like all manufacturers of consumer goods they will use the China-effect to profit stock holders alone... oops sorry getting off track.

 

[LPShanet]

Well is $80 USD that far off top-of-the-line or not? Seems to me like a proper proce alright, but that's when I've converted that into AUD - we inevtiable pay a heck of a lot for shoes in this country anyway.

Wilson shoes I've loved in the past but recently have begone to wonder if they're all they're cracked up to be or whether like all manufacturers of consumer goods they will use the China-effect to profit stock holders alone... oops sorry getting off track.

$80 is at least 20% off top of the line, since most of the major shoe manufacturers have at least one shoe in the $100 - $130 range. $80 would be the price range for "take downs".

 

[symon_say]

I get mines on yesterday and i can say that they look better in person.

They feel really nice on court, just need a little more break in, they feel a lot better than the nike's i had before.

If you're a normal guy how loves to play tennis and looking for a good price good looking and apparently long lasting tennis shoe this is for you.

 

[LPShanet]

My review is now posted in its own thread.