This year marks the 50th birthday of the Nike Blazer. While its overall design has remained largely unchanged in half a century, one question that people always have when they see the silhouette for the first time is why they have the foam is fully exposed across the tongue. If this is something that you’ve also wondered, you’ll find everything that you need to know here. So let’s get to it!
Simply put, the Nike Blazer features a foam tongue because it delivers a beautifully retro design. However, aside from being an aesthetic choice, the exposed foam also helps to make the shoes far more comfortable and breathable.
The foam is incredibly plush, making the basketball shoes more comfortable to wear. It also doesn’t put too much pressure on the tops of the feet, and it’s very flexible too, allowing it to bend and conform to your ankle as you move around. On top of that, the foam delivers added ventilation to the trainer. This results in the Blazer feeling more lightweight, making them ideal for everything from a casual walk to intense sports.
Other than the heavily-modified READYMADE collaboration from 2021, all other Blazer colourways have the iconic exposed foam tongue. Over the past 50 years, this has become a signature design element of the sneaker, and this won’t change anytime soon.
The Nike Blazer is extremely comfortably, but you should bear in mind that they have relatively flat soles. While this certainly isn’t a problem for skateboarding and weightlifting, we wouldn’t recommend wearing these for running or hiking.
The flat soles make it much easier for you to establish contact between your feet and the ground and keep your balance. However, this design also means that there isn’t a lot of flexibility, which could result in your foot straining. The Blazer also doesn’t feature additional supports like arch support. This is worth noting if you have particularly weak arches.
You’ll want to be patient when you are trying them for the first time, because there is a significant breaking-in period that you will need to get through in order to allow the shoes to conform to the shape of your feet. That said, no matter what you choose to wear the shoes for, Blazers are very lightweight and breathable, so you won’t feel as though you’re being weighed down by your shoes.
Despite having exposed foam in the tongues, which can lead many people to think they look unsupportive, the Blazer is actually very durable and are able to stand the test of time, provided you care for them and you wear them for the right purposes.
If you were to wear them for more intense sports like football, not only would your feet strain significantly, but the shoes would also degrade very quickly. The materials used to make Blazers are not quite as durable as those used to create popular Nike running shoes, so bending them too much can result in creases or even tears in the material.
The Nike Blazer has been around for 50 years, and in these five decades they are committed to bringing an authentic retro experience to wearers, hence why they include elements like the exposed foam tongue. If you’re thinking of adding these to your rotation, make sure to use them for activities like basketball,skateboarding, or weightlifting, as opposed to running and hiking, as the flat soles and lack of arch support make them unsuitable for running or long-distance walks.
