Nike SB Force 58 review

Don't sleep on the Nike SB Force 58 if you're looking for:

• An affordable yet high-quality copycat of the Air Force 1.
• A skating pal with a durable structure and a grippy outsole.
• A light and flexible pair of trainers with a killing style to show off around town.

If what you need is a cushioned shoe to be on your feet for hours, there are definitely better pairs than the SB Force 58. You know, these Nikes don't have a midsole after all! You could have a look at our walking shoes catalogue, or maybe just give in to the old reliable Pegasus collection, which is incredibly versatile and never goes out of style.

But if what you want to do is skate, among our skate-inspired trainers, the Vans Knu Skool is an icon with an incredibly padded tongue that will offer you as much comfort on your instep as the SB Force 58. We've got many others, so don't hesitate to have a look!

This shoe's 17.6 mm heel stack let us feel the ground under our feet fairly well. And not only the ground, also the skate!

Clearly, this structure doesn't focus on impact protection, as the SB Force 58 doesn't have a midsole. It's minimalistic and thin, reducing the weight and helping us control your board even better.

And things get even closer to the ground at the forefoot! The 10.6 mm our calliper returned when we measured this area gave it away instantly.

Once again, this is very typical for the shoes designed with skate in mind. Even though Nike's official webpage states the SB Force 58 has a look "infused with heritage basketball DNA", this pair couldn't be any further from actual hoopers.

In fact, if you're looking for a new pal to play ball, please check our basketball shoes catalogue out. Don't play in this! Think about your poor feet!

There's not a big difference between the heel and the forefoot stacks, so the drop of this shoe is not very high. After all, both areas are pretty close to the ground, so there couldn't be much of a difference.

At 7.0 mm, it's a bit lower than average, but that doesn't mean our feet were not used to it. It feels flat, and that's something we're already familiar with! You can ask our Vans or the Killshot 2 and the Court Vision Low (which look like siblings, by the way!).

All in all, this is something we've seen and felt countless times in skating trainers. And don't worry, unless you only use extra plushy shoes, your feet will definitely find this familiar too!

Our calliper marked 4.6 mm when we measured this shoe's insole thickness.

As expected, it's also lower than average. If the brand went for a super plushy insole, we wouldn't feel the ground under our feet that much! Still, if you want some extra support, you can always change it.

Despite being simple and thin, we didn't find it uncomfortable, as the Nike SB Force 58 has inner padding in the right areas. A little bit of a break-in period is needed, though. Its materials are tough after all!

According to our calliper, the toebox width of the SB Force 58 at the widest part is slightly narrower than average at 97.4 mm.

This goes hand in hand with the foot-hugging fit of this shoe, where our standard-sized feet didn't feel cramped or uncomfortable.

In fact, not even the reinforcements (suede layers) on the high-wear areas felt tight or rubbed our feet the wrong way. These protective walls help the shoe last longer, working as an armour that made us skate confidently.

The good thing about this Nike's toebox is that it doesn't taper like an arrow.

Our calliper returned 75.1 mm, which means our toes had some space to breathe. And trust us, we were very grateful after walking for a while!

In order to skate properly, this shoe needs a minimum level of stability!

All the inner padding we mentioned before paid off, giving some support to our ankles. These Nikes fit true to size, and their structure hugged our feet comfortably.

We really appreciated that, as it's very important for us to feel safe every time we grab the board and go have some fun!

Despite its protective side-wall rubber and overlayers, the SB Force 58 bent alongside our fingers in the lab and our feet in the streets easily.

As you can see, it didn't take us much to make it dance! This translates into great flexibility overall, which not only makes skate moves easier, but also helped us walk comfortably.

All in all, our wear tests were just SuperB! (Are we getting extra points for that pun?).

The sides of the SB Force 58's heel collar bent naturally when we pressed them with our fingers. Nevertheless, the Achilles area was a little bit less agreeable.

All the padding helped our feet stay in place, and even though this shoe doesn't feature a TPU heel counter (neither internal nor external) we didn't experience any heel slippage.

To measure this shoe's midsole width in the forefoot, we put it upside down and grabbed our calliper again.

It marked 102.4 mm, which is way lower than average. And even though we usually say that wider midsoles equal more stable landings, we didn't feel out of balance or anything like that during our wear tests.

Things got even wilder with the width of the midsole in the heel, as our calliper returned 69.8 mm. This figure is a crazy 15% lower than average!

We only needed 14.2N of force to bend this shoe all the way up to 90 degrees!

The fact that it needed such a light push to go for a handstand on our lab desk translated into a really comfortable ride thanks to its flexibility. It bent easily alongside our foot when we were walking, and it was the same feel when we tried this shoe on the skate!

In our wear tests, we try casual shoes walking around town, going out with friends, running errands... just going on with our daily lives. And the SB Force 58 felt incredibly lightweight on foot!

When we took it to our lab, our scale marked 11.7 oz/332.0g, which is way less than average. As it's a whole 15% lighter than other trainers, we didn't get tired any time soon! We could enjoy this shoe for hours, and we found its feathery yet resistant structure amazing for skating.

After performing loads and loads of breathability tests, we didn't trust the SB Force 58's toebox holes until we verified they were not a trap in our lab. If you're wondering why, you can ask the Nike Dunk Low, for example!

So we started with our light test, and wow, we couldn't see it shine through anything! Nope, not even those suspicious toebox holes...

But our smoke test showed us the other side of the coin! This is why it's crucial to make more than one breathability test. Even though some uppers might not have big gaps or ventilation holes, their materials might as well be breathable. In this case, even though we can't compare the Nike pair's performance with the Adidas Astir and its perfect 5/5 on our breathability test, we gotta say it did fairly well! Just look at all the smoke surprisingly coming out of the toebox!

We grabbed our microscope to know a little bit more about this area and its air-flowing features.

Despite looking clogged, the toebox holes did their job pretty well! Even though this might not be the best shoe to wear on the hottest days, we enjoyed walking around town with it even in the summer.

We've decided to give it an average 3/5 on our breathability test. A well-deserved grade!

In order to check the quality of the suede and leather materials, we need to grab our butane torch and scratching awl.

The Swoosh was our first victim, and wow! It just burnt away! Consequently, this material is definitely synthetic.

On the other hand, the suede is authentic! It resisted the flames like a champ, which is wonderful news if we take into account how cheap these trainers are.

Alright, Dremel time! We attacked the SB Force 58's toebox during 12 seconds at 5K RPM and with 3.2N of force.

We saw green dust fly away, which made us think the tool would just mercilessly open a hole in this shoe's upper. Nevertheless, when we put it aside, our fears were gone!

The material showed great durability, and it got just a little bit messed up, but nothing that would negatively affect the shoe's integrity! That's why we have decided to give it a solid 4/5 on our toebox durability test.

This comparison illustrates how wonderful a 4/5 on this test looks like. On the left, we have the SB Force 58; and on the right, the poor New Balance 530. The latter could only get a 1/5 on our toebox durability test, as that white thing you see in the hole is just a piece of material we put there to show that it was completely obliterated!

After the great score of the toebox on our durability test, we wanted the SB Force 58 to keep up the good work! So we moved the Dremel all the way back to the heel and got the party started.

Honestly, it didn't look bad at all! We put the tool aside and checked the final results with high expectations.

And they were met! The material looked a little bit messed up, but nothing too bad. We've decided to give this shoe another 4/5 on our heel padding durability test.

If you want to see what a real heel disaster looks like, check the New Balance 237 after this same heel padding durability test. Yep, that's a hole!

When our durometer returned 90.0 HC, we concluded we were definitely reviewing a toughie.

Even though we'll talk about this later on, this score promises great durability. But we'll have to ask our Dremel about that!

Just to clarify: as the outsole is harder than average, this shoe does not feel soft at all! But that doesn't mean that it's uncomfortable either.

Alright, the moment of truth has arrived! It was easy to ask our Dremel about the SB Force 58's durability, as all we had to do was turn it on and start drilling.

During the 22 seconds of the test, we saw a white rubber storm in the lab. The material flew away but our Dremel didn't stop, rolling at 10K RPM and with 3.2N of force.

Once the time was over, we put the tool aside and measured the depth of the dent with a tread gauge.

And wow! It was just 0.8 mm! This is a wonderful score, as being lower than average means this outsole should be pretty durable.

In other words, it won't leave your side any time soon!

Once we cut the shoe in half, we have access to its hidden parts, pieces, and materials. In this case, we could use our calliper to check the exact thickness of the SB Force 58's outsole.

The 5.5 mm it returned showed us that the brand decided not to go for a thicker or thinner than average outsole. We believe the reason is pretty simple: the material is durable enough, so this Nike doesn't need a big piece of rubber to protect its bottom side. Otherwise, it would add unnecessary weight or reduce the wonderful ground feel this pair provides (which skaters love, by the way!).

The Nike SB Force 58 provided us with wonderful traction!

Overall, this shoe needs a little bit of a break-in period. But after a couple of wears, it gave its best version to us!

On the board, it was simply majestic. We enjoyed how well it bit it, which helped us gain some extra confidence! And honestly, it was pretty much the same on urban surfaces, as its grip didn't lose points at all.

Also, its outsole is hard and durable, which means it can withstand the abrasion of this sport (as well as of urban surfaces) with no problems.

This Nike pair doesn't have any reflective elements, and even though it's shown us wonderful performance levels, we can't forget it's a budget shoe!

Long story short: we didn't expect it to have any.

With the 16.6 mm of padding this shoe's tongue has, we might as well change it and put a real pillow over our instep!

Just look at that! Pure softness, pure comfort. You can absolutely forget about lace bite too, of course.

Now this was the final touch that let us tighten these Nikes up firmly! The shoe didn't move an inch, as the tongue also has a lace in the middle to keep everything in its right place.

No heel tab around! The Nike Force SB 58 kept things simple and easy.

A semi-gusseted tongue is the (almost) final touch of this shoe's supportive upper.

It held our feet in place, hugging them tightly so we didn't feel insecure on the board!

As we've mentioned before, if you need some extra support you can always change this shoe's insole.

The SB Force 58 features a removable insole that's easy to change if you need or want to use your own orthotics.