Nike Motiva review

The Nike Motiva's unique design can be perplexing when you first see it. Having worn and lab-tested the shoe, we believe that it is most suitable for the people who:

• want a fitness walking shoe that can easily transition into jogging
• a rockered shoe that promotes faster and smoother heel-to-toes
• a shoe with extra plush, bottomless cushioning

The Nike Motiva offers a bundle of benefits but not enough for overpronators. We think that people who need a stable and supportive platform with arch support would be better off with the Skechers Max Cushioning Arch Fit.

And if you specifically need a summer-ready shoe, the Nike Winflo 10 is a more breathable alternative.

The Nike Motiva provides tons of cushioning for people who are just starting out running and tend to transition into walking a lot. At this stage, the wearer lands primarily on their heels which calls for better impact protection from the shoe in this area.

And the Motiva does just that. Measuring its thickness in the heel, our caliper showed a stack height of 34.9 mm. That's notably thicker than the average walking shoe, providing a very generous squish underfoot.

The Nike Motiva's midsole also exceeds the average in its forefoot cushioning. Based on our caliper measurement, it is 25.6 mm thick under the ball of the foot.

That way, it's not just the heel that receives love in this fabulously cushioned walking shoe.

The difference in height between the heel and the toes gives us a drop of 9.3 mm. This is a standard heel elevation for a walking shoe as it adds support and takes the pressure off the Achilles.

The squish is real in the Nike Motiva. Not only is the foam itself very plush but the shoe's peculiar wavy sole and protruding bumps at the bottom also help to level up the compression.

We turned to our durometer to measure the softness of the foam underneath the heel. The tool returned a reading of 15.0 HA which is a whopping 70% plusher than the average foam!

Walking in the Nike Motiva was pure joy! The ride felt marshmallowy and luxurious for hours... But unfortunately, there is a caveat - the foam starts to crease almost immediately.

And for heavier wearers, we anticipate a quicker bottoming-out of the cushioning. 

Given the shoe's warm upper, we thought you might want to wear it in the colder months of the year as well. But does its cushioning remain just as soft when the temperatures drop?

It does!

Even though it's not one of Nike's super foams it certainly is a magical foam. After spending 20 minutes in the freezer, the shoe's foam did get 15.9% firmer but it remained 95% plusher than other foams in the same conditions!

Given the shoe's exceptionally comfortable midsole, there wasn't much need for a super cushy insole. The latter is only lightly padded at 4.2 mm in the heel.

But the star of the show is of course the Motiva's exaggerated rocker design. This feature has long established itself in the running shoe realm but there is no reason for it not to work in walking shoes!

If this looks all new and weird to you, a simple metaphor would be a rocking chair. As opposed to its flat counterparts, this chair has raised curvy edges that allow for quick and smooth transitions from front to back.

Same here. As you step on the heel, the shoe literally rocks your foot forward to the toes, encouraging you to take the next step more quickly.

Of course, it may take some time to get used to but we can assure you that it takes less than a day to fully adjust.

Nike shoes received numerous complaints for their uncomfortably narrow fit over the years. This must have led the brand to promise a "widened forefoot, arch, and toebox" in the Motiva.

But even though we never felt constricted in this walking shoe, it didn't seem like a particularly spacious one. So let's make a gel mold of this Nike shoe, shall we?

Once the mold was jellified, we measured its widest part with a caliper. Turns out, that the Motiva is actually a bit narrower than the average walking shoe at 92.4 mm.

Gladly, the toebox tapering is rather mild in this Nike shoe. Measuring its width near the big toe, we got a standard reading of 71.0 mm.

We also noticed that the Motiva's toebox fabric sits pretty close to the toes. That's because the shoe's toebox height is slightly lower than average at 24.4 mm.

Even though its knit upper has some stretch to it, it's not enough to recommend the Nike Motiva for people with wide feet. Unfortunately, it's not available in wide options either.

As you can probably tell by now, the Nike Motiva is fully attuned to continuous forward motion. We strongly warn you against taking this shoe to the gym or attempting any aggressive lateral movements in it.

The video below shows that the Motiva almost feels like standing on a fitness ball! It wants you to rock forward and not any other direction.

So, if you are someone with excessive inward rolling of the foot (overpronation) or other foot conditions, you may prefer a much more stable and supportive Skechers Max Cushioning Arch Fit.

But hear us out, if you're only using this Nike shoe for walking and jogging, we promise that there are no issues with stability here. Never once did we feel like our ankles were about to roll over the shoe.

If you try to twist the Motiva like we did, you will see how incredibly stiff it is laterally! On a stiffness scale from 1 to 5, we readily rated it with the maximum 5!

The shoe's heel counter is not very stiff but it is amply padded to hold the heel and ankle securely in place. If 5 is the stiffest, we would rate this heel counter as 2.

Of course, no shoe would not be fully stable without a wide platform with extended contact points. And the Nike Motiva takes care of this by offering some of the widest midsoles among walking shoes!

Measuring the distance between the widest points of the forefoot, we got 116 mm. A few millimeters wider than average.

The shoe's platform widens again at the heel. Here, we measured the widest area at 96.6 mm, much wider than average!

A wide landing area in the heel is crucial when you're dealing with such squishy cushioning.

Because the Nike Motiva relies on the rocking motion so much, it is expected to be less flexible than a normal walking shoe.

Our in-house flexibility test fully proves this. Using a force gauge, we pushed the shoe to a 90-degree angle and measured how much force it took to bend it that far. For the Motiva, the reading was 29.2N which is 55% more than it takes on average.

Not a flexible shoe but it's not a problem.

We were curious to see whether the Motiva would get even stiffer in cold conditions but it didn't! We observed a mere 4% difference in flexibility whereas most walking shoes stiffen up by 50-60%!

Given the amount of midsole foam and outsole rubber, we couldn't expect the Nike Motiva to be lighter than average. But it is far from being a heavy shoe too!

Tipping the scale at 10.8 oz (306g) in a men's US size 9, the Nike Motiva weighs exactly the same as other walking shoes with a heel stack of 34 mm and more. And it never felt like a drag on our feet either.

Taking this Nike shoe out on a hot summer day is not the best idea. Even when we wore our thinnest socks, our feet ended up slightly damp at 80°F (27°C).

The shoe's lack of breathability was later confirmed in our lab. Using a smoke-pumping machine, we filled the shoe's upper with smoke and observed how quickly it would pass through the material.

Indeed, the Motiva's upper refused to release the smoke that easily. Comparing it to other walking shoes, we rated this Nike with a moderate score of 3 out of 5 for breathability.

To show you exactly how dense the shoe's upper material is, we hovered the half-cut upper over a light bulb. As you can see, there is not a single aperture that would let the light shine through!

Finally, we grabbed our microscope to investigate the knit mesh up close.

What we've got here are rather thick and densely woven threads that are bound together into a solid one-piece fabric.

But the good news is that this monolithic material is quite resistant to abrasion. We were amazed at how well the Motiva's upper stood up to our durability test with a Dremel!

We pressed the tool's sandpaper tip against the shoe's toebox material for 12 seconds at consistent pressure (3.2N) and speed (5K RPM).

And the result was stunning! Our Dremel didn't even cut through all of the threads, making more of a cosmetic mess. This earned the Nike Motiva a high score of 4 out of 5 for toebox durability.

Just look at what the same test did to a mesh upper on another shoe!

For a not-so-expensive shoe, the Motiva keeps showing great quality of upper materials!

Drilling the shoe's lining inside the heel collar for 4 seconds, we saw a pretty moderate level of damage. On a 1-5 scale, we rated it with a well-deserved 3.

And if that score doesn't seem to reassuring to you, just have a look at what 1 out of 5 looks like in the photo below.

With our expectations set high for this Nike shoe, we went on to check the durability of its outsole.

Pressing our durometer against the shoe's rubber outsole, it showed a very promising reading of 92.0 HC. Being 20% harder than average, it is also pretty likely to be more durable than average. 

To our delight, this proved to be true!

Using the Dremel again, we turned it up to a higher speed (10K RPM) and pressed it against one of the shoe's rubber lugs for 22 seconds.

We measured the newly formed dent with a tread gauge and it showed only 1.2 mm of depth. We are happy to report that this is shallower than the average dent created by the Dremel!

Nike also used a slightly thicker-than-average outsole for the Motiva. Seeing 3.0 mm of rubber on our caliper further convinced us of the Motiva's potential to last hundreds of miles.

This shoe has an excellent grip for urban conditions, even wet ones!

Featuring Nike's signature waffle outsole pattern, its traction is not only effective but also exudes Nike's retro shoe vibes.

The Motiva's tongue is substantially more padded than average, showing 11.5 mm on our caliper. It is twice as thick as a typical walking shoe tongue.

It does detract from the shoe's breathability but amplifies the in-shoe comfort.

The shoe's tongue is fully integrated into the upper, forming a bootie-like structure that holds the foot very securely.

There was no unwanted foot shifting or play inside the Nike Motiva which greatly contributed to our surefootedness.

There is no pull tab or finger loop to assist in getting the shoe on. And given the shoe's bootie upper, so you will most likely need both hands to slide into it.

The stock insole is easily removable in the Nike Motiva. In case you decide to level up the shoe's comfort or arch support.