Any press member will tell you, in the lead-up to CES, once you submit your registration the emails will come flooding in. Some will be to your focused areas and some will be just random. The sea of emails you need to sort through is a task in itself. But, every now and then you’ll come across a company that is pitching you something to check out and be glad you did. This year, that honor goes to Kizik! Their first email to me was back in December and they were letting me know about the company and its booth. Their pitch was this.
“As simple as it seems, putting your shoes on can be a hassle. You have to bend down, struggle with loosening the laces, wiggle your foot in and then lace them back up, but not too tight or too loose. Kizik hands-free shoes from the future help eliminate the struggle.
Kizik shoes (available for men, women and kids) feature a patented heel design so all you have to do is slip your toes into the shoe, the heel will compress so your foot can slide all the way in and then once your foot is in, it will spring back into place securing your foot in the shoe. Sneakers are now as easy to put on as slides or flip flops.”
PR Email
Now normally this isn’t the core of what we cover at G Style, but over the years we have been expanding. And one of the things I stated in my post about the road to CES, mentioned wanting to find something unexpected. Kizik was offering to potentially try a pair and I thought what better way to test this out for a review than to use them during CES 2023? Kizik was able to ship me a pair of their Athens sneaker (I was able to choose which pair I wanted to try and the Athens had the look and feel of a pair of sneakers I would wear in my day-to-day) which arrived before I left for CES. And this is exactly what I did, for all except for one day of CES I wore the Kizik Athens sneakers as the daily driver.
First Impression & Looks
Kizik had quite a few styles of sneakers available now on their site and the style kind of run the gamut of some of the more popular styles you see around today, with the key difference being their hand-free technology. I chose the Athens in Black (which I was also told to be one of their popular models) as it fits with the look and style I’d more commonly wear daily when running around. But also see some other styles I liked as well with their Lima, Prague, and Madrid models also.
The Athens sneaker looks well constructed, fits well, and felt comfortable. Stepping into the shoes and super easy, and didn’t require using my hands or wiggling my foot around to get it. It was a once slide in and done process. After I slid my feet in, I tighten up the laces to a firm comfort and then finished up with tieing the sneakers. This would be the last time so far I’ve had to tie the sneakers. I packed them up for CES and would come back to them then.
CES 2023 – 94K Steps Later, How they faired?
As mentioned, for all but one day, I pretty much wore the Kizik Athens sneakers from morning to night, on into late night/early morning (hey it’s Vegas!). I will say that I truly enjoyed wearing these sneakers. All Black Athens just look good and felt great, and getting in and out of them is super easy! Truly all week I never had to re-tie the laces, didn’t have to struggle to get my feet in, and no hands were needed. I just stepped in and was ready to go.
What I found most impressive with the sneakers was the heel’s flexibility and at the same time strength. The heel bends and flexes at just the right angle for your foot when you step it, that was hard to recreate just trying to force it with your hands. This made showing someone using my hands to swish it difficult, but if I just stepped in you could see how simple it was. And at the same time, after a week of stepping in and out of the sneakers, didn’t warp the heel in a way that it started losing its rigidity. The sneaker never lose its heel form, didn’t become misshapen. By end of the week, after putting it through quite a lot of walking it still looked and felt as good as it did on day one.
Post CES 2023 – Am I Still Wearing them?
Honestly yes, and I actually picked up another pair myself. As I mentioned earlier there were a few other styles I was interested in, so I decided to pick up a pair of the Lima sneakers as well and will be incorporating both into my outfit rotation. The Kizik sneakers are priced from $99 to $149, and in speaking with members of the team at their CES booth, more styles are on the roadmap for this year. I for one will be keeping tabs to see what new styles they come out with!
If you are interested in checking out a pair yourself, have a look here!
