Pendlay has just announced the release of a new model of Do-Wins for 2011, the Wide Line Stitch, or WL for short. They will be available for purchase on or around January 15th of next year. With this release comes the discontinuing of several colors of the 2010 do-win model including white, blue and red. Pendlay will continue making the hot-selling Women’s pink and gray Do-win as well as the Men’s gray model but they will be referred to as Do-Win “Classics” from here on.
I haven’t been able to inspect the new WL Do-wins in person but from what I can tell not much has changed but the styling of the shoe. They are still made out of the same shiny pleather’ish material that we believe isn’t stiff enough for a shoe that is to be used for Olympic style lifting. It does appear they have done something to fix the problematic “pressed cork” heel, which we noted in our review of the 2010 model as being problematic due to the ease at which the heel would separate or split. Splitting heels is actually a fairly common issue among weightlifting shoes that have a pressed wood heel and it isn’t limited to just Do-Win shoes, we’ve seen it from other brands such as Risto, Wan Hoa, Werksan and more. As we’ve said before, some of this can be attributed to the misuse of a shoe or improper care. Pendlay has decided to attempt to remedy this situation by binding the heel with leather, which should work. This does mean the death of the “exposed wood heel” look that everyone liked, but once you get a look at your color options you’ll quickly realize that a pale wood color wasn’t going to look good on these models anyway.
So let’s talk about the new styling. As of this writing the shoes will be available in dark gray with lime-green, neon-yellow, or light-gray accents. I’m not a big fan of the colors; they look to me like there were designed by the mad hatter while on an acid trip. Seriously… they are out there. It appears to me as if Pendlay was trying to go retro with these but, except for the black and grey model, I don’t find the design appealing nor would I wear them for anything other than blacklight-disco bowling.
But hey, that’s just me. Maybe you still have some parachute pants, slap bracelets and a body glove t-shirt you can rock to the gym while wearing these bad boys ; ) I’ll save my final review and rating for when I get a pair of these in hand, hopefully they rate better than their predecessors did.
Finally, someone addresses the problem with the cork coming apart.
Yea, I’m curious to see how the binded heels hold up. I am still doubtful that much will be done to address the manufacturing defects that are so common with do-win shoes… such as the un-level soles. Both Pendlay and Rogue are good companies and I’d really like to see them get away from the Do-Win brand and go with something better made. But that won’t happen until people stop buying these shoes with autonomous discretion.
Yea, I’m curious to see how the binded heels hold up. I am still doubtful that much will be done to address the manufacturing defects that are so common with do-win shoes… such as the un-level soles. Both Pendlay and Rogue are good companies and I’d really like to see them get away from the Do-Win brand and go with something better made. But that won’t happen until people stop buying these shoes with autonomous discretion.
The colors are off some of the hottest running shoes out there right now. Go look at the Nike site and it's full of that neon green, and even some yellow. I love the ones with green but will never buy a pair of Do-Win's again. You get what you pay for. Looking forward to the new Asics that are coming…..
Ya, but running shoes are used in a totally different atmosphere than a a gym shoe. If you walked into my gym wearing neon anything, you'd get laughed out of there in a heartbeat. Of course, the people at my gym are mostly power lifters and Olympic lifters, so if you walked in wearing do-wins… you'd get laughed at anyway.
I'd like to see OL shoes from Asics. Does anyone have any news on these?
Love the new colors!