Hi again and thanks for joining us again at Sneakermin.com! Another review for you today! This time we’re taking a look at another retro classic sneaker, the Converse Fastbreak – in the navy blue, white and red colorway.
Spoiler alert! These are COOL! We LOVE them! What a striking color combination of white-blue-white with the red highlight. White-blue-white, with a red-highlight – Sneakermin rhymes are an unintentional bonus! 🙂
So …. What’s It Made Of?
These blue beauties are part leather, part synthetic, with a brown gum sole.
How Do They Look?- Quick Once Over
The mouth of the sneaker has a nice white border with a red underling both in leather. The heel and toe cap are covered in blue leather for better wear and cooler styling. The rest of the sneaker is a navy blue smooth synthetic material, giving the sneaker quite a striking look with the contrasting colors.
How Do They Look?- Let’s Take a Deep Dive
My first look at these was in the Converse store and I thought – just a standard classic blue and white combo with a touch of red. A second closer look made me see some super classic retro touches and special details galore! From side to side, from top to bottom and from underneath – here we go…
From the side, the Converse Fastbreak sneaker has a nice prominent collar notch, bordered in white, with a thin red border under the white. Then we move to a navy blue synthetic nylon upper, with a matching navy blue leather heel cap. The uppers are stitched with white stitching to a bright white mid sole.Under mid sole sole is a soft brown gum outer sole.
Back to the top, the soft blue tongue of the sneaker is topped with a red border. In silver embroidered on the tongue is “Converse” and then a large bold “CONS” embroidered under this. The navy blue laces thread through shiny brassy eyelets, 8 on each side of the sneaker. Each side of the sneaker has the forward pointing arrow like symbol with the star both in white. Striking look against the dark navy upper. Around to the front of the sneaker, there’s the white mid sole, a navy blue leather toe-cap and then the synthetic navy upper.
Onto the soles, at first look the white mid soles are classic and plain in white. But…. look again friends! On the outside of each mid sole, back near the heel there is another subtle “Converse” standing out on the mid sole.
Down-under now, let’s take a look at the outer sole. The outer sole is a grippy gummy brown rubber. Another win win. Not only does the gum sole enhance the retro styling, but the softer gummy rubber gives more grip when you need it. That’s usually a pretty handy feature (handy feeture)? Well anyway it’s always great to have more grip. The pattern on the sole provides good grip for general walking and also for courts sports or some light physical exercise. The sole is set off nicely with ” Converse” branding in the arch. These make a nice imprint on concrete pavements of you step in a puddle first. 🙂
The styling and detail extravaganza just keeps going as you move to the back of the sneaker. Here we see a blue leather heel cap and topping off the detailing is a red Converse star on the heel notch.
Laces
Laces are a big part of the sneaker in terms of its ease of use. These sneakers come with a slightly shorter lace, meaning they will often pull out of the top eyelet when you open or loosen up the shoe to slide your foot in or out.
You can just lace up to the 2nd to last eyelet, giving yourself a bit more length to tie up as well as open up the shoe. You could even lace them up loosely if you skip the last 2 eyelets. Then you can almost slip them on and off more easily and quickly. Carefully mind you 😉 that we don’t squash or step on the heel to get in or out of them. No sneaker deserves that!
How about replacing these with longer ones? Well… yes you could, but I wouldn’t. The laces really finish the shoe. The aglets, which are the ends of a shoe laces, are also in a brassy gold color, definitely quite hard to find, so it’s worth keeping them I’d say.
6 Month Update How Are They Doing?
After 6 months of wear, the Converse Fastbreak are doing just great thank you! The wearer is a younger more trendy Sneakermin with an eye for the retro classic. As you can tell from the pictures, they are well cared for. No need for any cleaning so far, but we’ll give them a waterproof treatment now, to keep them looking good. And the micro-fibre cloth is always on-hand for when they need a clean down the track a bit.
Walkability and Comfort – How Do They Feel On Your Feet?
As I hope you’re picking up, these are some very cool looking sneakers, retro cool at that. Here’s a tip though – they do seem more firm and more rigid than other sneakers we’re wearing currently. My black leather Chucks mid tops, I find to be very comfortable now they are fully worn in. There are also a few pairs of Skechers and a pair of Ecco sneakers making tracks in the Sneakermin household, these 2 brands seem to be a “few steps ahead” of all other sneakers when it comes to walkablity and comfort.
Walkability of the Converse Fast break is probably a bit less at first. Our advice – thick socks and wear them in “real good” before you think of taking them on holiday or on a long day of walking around the zoo, park or mall. Once you have worn them in, you will feel nothing but joy when you put these on :-). Another good option is some inner soles, just to up your level of comfort. Best advice – wear them in and then see if you need anything else to improve walkability.
Other Colorways
There are a few other colorways around which are just as good-looking as the navy, white red. This white green version or black suede version might also appeal to you. The classic navy blue is still our favorite.
Amazon Converse Fastbreak White – Green
Amazon Converse Fastbreak Black / Egret
Where Can I Buy Some?
I always look on Amazon first – see the links above. My next stop for the Converse Fastbreak was Footlocker, who had the style available, but not in all colors. Footlocker look like they have some great retro sneaker options for us to explore together soon.
Footlocker – Converse Fastbreak
Summing Up – Converse Fastbreak in Navy Blue, White and Red
The Converse Fastbreak is a nice change from the more popular black or white sneaker and gives you another eye-catcher to wear for light sporting activities, walking or mainly for kicking around socially. A bold but subtle, simple and stunning retro classic – a bit of white, a dash of red on a dark blue canvas. Every sneaker seems to have its own charm and appeal. The Converse Fastbreak oozes retro charm! Thick socks and wear them in well, these 2 tips will enhance your experience.
Overall another great addition to any sneaker collection and a great pair to have an as alternate or swap in to your regular ones. The different color ways also look pretty good to us.
Thank you again for reading our reviews. From the Sole, we wish you a great day!
Sneakermin out
