After one session:
After two sessions:
After three sessions:
After four sessions:
After five sessions:
After six sessions:
After seven sessions:
After eight sessions (shoes started to feel more OK today):
After nine sessions:
After ten sessions:
After 11 sessions:
After 12 sessions:
After 13 sessions:
After 14 sessions:
After 15 sessions:
After 16 sessions:
After 17 sessions:
After 18 sessions (shoes felt better today):
After 19 sessions:
After 20 sessions:
After 21 sessions (big toe spots show first signs of having worn through the topmost layer):
After 22 sessions:
After 23 sessions:
After 24 sessions:
After 25 sessions:
After 26 sessions:
After 27 sessions:
After 28 sessions:
After 29 sessions:
After 30 sessions:
After 31 sessions:
After 32 sessions:
After 33 sessions (see below):
*** Cons of this shoe: the toe area of the shoe has become very soft, not much more protective to the toes than wearing socks; for my wide feet personally, these shoes are too narrow. I've skated them without any insoles which makes them, especially now that they are really worn in, totally wearable and skateable and OK (but I'm pretty tolerant in that regard) - but not more than OK. Even now, before I start skating I can still feel the pinch in my midfoot of the footbed being just too narrow; pros of this shoe: for anyone who doesn't like Shoe Goo (or similar products), the upper is pretty amazing in that it is a novel, really durable, grippy, no problem with the flick material - I'd like to see other companies (hello, SoleTech) try this type of material out, but why not use a cupsole (or even vulcanized) instead of (con) this Nike sci-fi whatever-it-is construction that really fucks up your big toes if you land the wrong way ... more pros: with the ventilation holes the shoe is really breathable; the soles are now pretty worn through but 33 sessions is not bad and even once that foam material below the outsoles becomes visible that stuff is still very durable AND it doesn't feel weird or different than before; the back part of the upper, around the heel is NOT made up of the rubber upper but of some soft synthetic sports shoe stuff, covered by that hard plastic thing; I don't full understand how they came up with this construction or what the hidden meaning of it is (if any) BUT it does work; the heel loops (that say "Nyjah") are also useful, mostly for putting the shoes on; they also do prevent your trousers from getting below your sole to some small degree but not in an OG 90s DC shoe kind of way; the hard plastic thing around the heel area also DOES prevent the usual heel flip eat-into-your-shoe damage; I also do NOT find that the shoes are hard to put on (some YouTube people did mention this); all in all this is a great shoe - if it wasn't Nike - for people with narrow feet. I personally would prefer the midsection of the shoe to be wider and the shoe to have a stronger sole construction in the toe area (like a cupsole) that can protect the toes more towards the end of the shoes' life. Oh, and you can take the Nike swooshes off with a razor, see below. ***
Updated 8 April 2024
After one session: I've skated these shoes now for one session. The upper is fine. The grip/flick is slightly different (I usually have vegan suede Etnies Maranas) but that's not really an issue at all. The soles feel slippery at first (!) on the very outside of the deck where there's no griptape, but this seems to go away after 30 min (?) of skating. The soles are flexible and I can feel my board. The edges are a bit to "rectangular", i.e., not rounded off, for me but that comes with new shoes, I guess. Kickflips don't seem to "eat" into the upper at all but they do somewhat eat into the side of the sole. The ventilation is fine, same level of foot sweatiness as with the Etnies Maranas, I would say. The soles feel slightly different from flat (regular) skate shoe soles. The soles are basically foam on a "framework" of the actual rubber material outsoles - and that's what it feels like (maybe this is all in my mind). As others have pointed out, the shoes do look different from, well let's say éS or Etnies, etc. But then again, so do other Nike or Adidas or New Balance shoes. I don't have the slightest idea why Nike and Nyjah have made a skate shoe like this that is so non-skate shoe like. But this just might be because I think like a skater (and an old skater who grew up in the 90s). Maybe the target audience for this shoe is much more mainstream (yes, MUCH more mainstream than skateboarding already is). And this shoe looks exactly (don't take my word for it - at least sort of) like any other run-of-the-mill Nike running shoe that everybody and their aunt wears, and maybe that exactly is their sales plan and marketing strategy.
Update 13 January 2024: This shoe seems to be well made (haven't skated them yet) and much more comfortable for wide-footed skateboarders than the Nyjah 1 (I've never tried the Nyjah 2). As with the Nyjah 1, I prefer to take the insoles (which are really thin) out - but that's just me. The Nyjah 1 really hurt my feet in the mid-section of the foot (inner and outer side). But the Nyjah 3 has squishy, soft, foamy material all around that area making the shoe more comfortable - however, after walking around in the shoes for half an hour I could feel that this shoe still has the same problem (at least for wide-footed people) that the Nyjah 1 had: it hurts the outside of the midfoot. The problem is maybe 95% less compared to the Nyjah 1, but the problem's still there, at least a little bit. It's bearable though. If you don't have very wide feet, this might not be an issue for you at all. But it's not something that you would necessarily notice by just trying the shoes on in a skate shop or shoe shop. I only started feeling it after a few minutes of walking.
As mentioned before, check the Andrew Cannon and David Bluetile review videos - see links below.
You can take the Nike logos off with a razor.
----------------------
These shoes came out a while ago (~ November 2022) and I'm personally not a big fan of Nike ... and ... my feet are probably too wide for this, but most people aren't like me. And younger skaters especially might be more keen on wearing what everybody's skating in, i.e., Nike or Adidas. Oh and as "wide feet" is a relative term, as Andrew Cannon correctly points outs, here's a photo of my feet:
As far as I know all colourways of this shoe are vegan, i.e., leather-free. There are rumours about small amounts of animal products in the glue and/or the rubbery synthetic upper material. I personally do not find this very important.
I do not know why Nyjah has been making all of his (three so far) Nike shoes vegan/leather-free. He grew up on a vegan diet, with a vegan (at least dietary) Rastafarian father, but he (Nyjah and the father too maybe) always wore leather shoes back when he was a vegan dreadlocked kid. Now, as a meat-eating millionaire with all kinds of decadent leather furniture in his mansion, his pro shoes are vegan/leather free. Nyjah may not eat red meat (cows, pigs, goats) and he may not drink milk (from cows) - he said so at one point but this may not be current information. Whatever the reason for the leather-free-ness of his pro shoes ... let's hope he will never discontinue that tradition.
Below are the pictures. You can find the shoe practically anywhere.
And here is a review of the shoe by Andrew Cannon (August 2023), long-time vegan and Santa Cruz team manager (as far as I know):
And here is a review of the shoe by David Bluetile (November 2022), long-time vegan and skate shop (USA) owner (his shop sells leather shoes - just so you know - but vegan shoes too, so if you live in the US, check out bluetilesc.com).
Note: This shoe is probably quite narrow. For me, the Njyah 1 was too narrow and hurt my feet on both sides (but especially the outer [!] side) of the mid-foot.
Update 25 August 2023: Today I saw someone at the skate park wearing the Nyjah 3s, and I asked them how they like them. And that skater said he also had wide, flat feet, and that they feel a little narrow and that they hurt a little on the outer side of the mid-foot. So, flat and wide footers beware.
You can also check out the Nyjah 3 review by Tactics Boardshop (skate shop, USA). They say, the shoe is narrow and really durable, both the upper and the soles. And the flick is apparently good.
Nyjah Huston