My Review on the Nike5 Lunar Gato Volt

About 2 weeks ago I bought myself a new pair of futsal shoes. I had to replace my 3-year old Nike5 Zoom T-7. I love that shoes, it was one of the best shoes I've ever worn. It served me well for 3 long years. Now it is all worn out. Looking for a replacement wont be easy as I have high expectations. So few days before I bought my new shoes, I decided to browse through the internet for some futsal shoes. I have always been a fan of Nike5. Having said that, I don't really like the current models of Nike5, especially the Elastico. There I was, browsing through the net, when I saw, the Lunar Gato. I watched and read its reviews online, and found out that they rate this shoe highly. I was impressed, so I decided to give it a try. After all, it looks really cool.

The futsal shoes that I've been wearing for the past 3 years or so.
What a good pair of shoes. Superb touch, and good for delivering long balls. 

I instantly went to look for it the next day. I went to sport stores / shoe outlets all around Kuching City to look for that shoe. I eventually found the shoe in some of the outlets, but the problem was, they don't have my size. I was frustrated as I went to look all over Kuching and I can't find a Lunar Gato that fits my foot. It took me about two days before I finally found a Lunar Gato my size. I wore a  US size 8, but surprisingly the Lunar Gato is half a size smaller than the normal US size 8. The only remaining size was 8.5 and when i tried it on, it fits! I was like yeahh!! Finally!  Without any hesitation  I bought the shoes for about RM 310. The colour of the shoe is Volt, something like Neon Green. It is super bright, and very striking. So there I was, excited and overwhelmed. I almost gave up the search. I was about to ask my cousin to help me get the shoes in West Malaysia. But thank God I found it first before I made someone else's life miserable. 

There are so many futsal shoes in the market, but why did I chose the Lunar Gato. Well, I wanted a pair of shoes that will help me improve my ball control and dribbling skills. I am also looking to improve my shooting. Most of importantly, it must be durable and very comfortable to wear for long hours. The Lunar Gato seems to fit the bill. I wore the shoes a few times now, but I am still not used to it yet. Maybe because the sole of the shoe is still hard, and it takes time for it to soften itself. So without further a-do, I will now give you my review on the Nike5 Lunar Gato Volt. 

Outer angle of the shoe. 

Design
I really like the design of the Lunar Gato. The colour is just striking bright! Suitable for people who love to express themselves. The upper front part of the shoe is made from soft leather. Leather is definitely a plus when it comes to futsal shoes as they are ideal for ball control and shooting. Just above the toe area, there's like a sand paper finish to the leather, probably for you to hit the ball with more venom. The middle to back part of the shoe is made from mesh and synthetic material to give it a cooler look. The sole of the shoe is very tacky and has a honeycomb pattern to it.  The sole of the shoe is also thick, which gives a lot of cushioning while running with the shoe. Overall, The Lunar Gato is quite a good looking shoe in my opinion  So would I give it an 8/10 for it's design.

Honeycomb patterned sole. Good traction.

Traction
The Lunar Gato certainly have good traction to it. It has this honeycomb pattern / design on the sole and it increases traction. Futsal shoes must always have good grip to prevent its user from slipping and also to enhance ball control. A grippy sole is good for stopping the ball. In futsal, the basic and most effective way of ball stopping is with your sole.  It's also great for rolling the ball on court as rolling is the most basic form of dribbling in futsal. I would definitely give it a 9/10 for its traction performance.

Shooting
If you are a player who likes to shoot, this shoe would fit your style. I wore it for a few times now, and I find it very good for shooting. Since the front part of the shoe is made out of leather, it is really suitable for shooting. The sand paper finish on the toe area provides traction when you hit the ball thus giving it more power and spin. Also very suitable for "toe pocking" (shooting the ball with your toes) . This shoe is a little bit thick, but it gives you a wider striking area on your shoes. Unlike thinner shoes, you tend to slice the ball when you shoot as it is too thin. Thicker shoes allow you to have a cleaner strike. For shooting performance, I would give it an 8/10.

Comfort

Middle shoe consist of mesh and syntetic material.
The Nike Logo feels rubbery and smooth. You can see
how thick the padding is on the sole. 

The Lunar Gato is probably one of the most comfortable shoes in the market. I am dead serious about this. It is indeed very comfortable. The soft leather and mesh make a good combo. Leather for good touch, mesh improves air circulation thus allowing your feet to breathe a bit.  The inner heel of the shoe is made from Suade. Good for preventing blisters. The moment you put your feet into the shoe, you can feel how comfy it is. The cushioning in the shoe is just awesome.The LUNARLON technology provides cushioning, padding and comfort for its users. You can run for hours in these shoes and not feel sore. The cushioning makes the inner sole soft and bouncy that you can't really feel the floor. So basically it gives your heels very good support. I would give it a 9.5/10 for comfort!

Touch
The touch on this shoe is superb. It cushions the ball nicely whenever I receive hard passes. Passing with this shoe is not bad too as the mesh material in the middle enhances your passing feel. The soft leather helps to control the ball better as it enables you to feel the ball when you are running with it. Unlike some synthetic material, you don't get to feel the ball thus reducing your ball control. I am not a good dribbler of the ball, I can't really tell if this shoe is good for dribbling. But I am pretty sure it provides good touch. Usually if your shoes provide good touches, most of the time, it is good for dribbling. I would give it an 8/10 for touch performance.

Inner angle of the shoe. 

Weight
For a futsal shoe, The Lunar Gato is considered one of the lightest shoes out there in the market. But definitely NOT the lightest. I've worn lighter shoes before. The weight for me is just ok. I wish it was lighter. Maybe because of the cushion padding in the shoe that makes it a lil' heavy. Don't get me wrong, it is still a light shoe. But there are lighter shoes out there. So the Lunar Gato to me is a lil' heavy if I were to compare it with other indoor football shoes like Adidas Top Sala, Kelme, or Nike5 Elastico. I would give it a 7/10 for its weight.

Durability

Back angle of the shoes.

A good futsal shoe must always be durable. Otherwise you need to change it every year. Well, what can I say about the Lunar Gato. It is very durable. It is made to last for a long time. The stitching on the leather and on the sole of the shoe is pretty good and neat. They use thick threads to stitch the sole of the shoe and it looks as if it can withstand a good beating. If you play on a futsal court, this shoe would definitely last very long. However, If you play on a rough surface, I don't think the sole would last. Because the sole of the shoe is soft. The durability of the sole depends on what kind of surface you play on. However, the upper part of the shoe is no doubt very durable. Therefore I give the Lunar Gato an 8/10 for durability.

So yeah fellas, that's about it....my review on the Nike5 Lunar Gato. So far I am quite happy with my choice. So if  you guys are interested in buying the Lunar Gato, I hope this review helps you with your decision. Overall, the Lunar Gato is a good pair of futsal shoes to have, even though it is quite pricey. After all, these are Nike's top end indoor football shoes. Money well spent for me :)

Top angle of the shoes. Upper front part is made
from soft leather. It feels like Kanga Leather
but it is not. 

-Ian V

A Quest For Glory.

So, few days ago my team went to join this OPEN futsal tournament. The tournament was organized by Harian Metro (a newspaper company). We usually participate in smaller tournaments. But this was huge. They have like 116 teams or something like that, joining the Harian Metro Futsal Tournament. This was the first time Harian Metro organized such a huge futsal event in Kuching. However in West Malaysia, they organized this tournament at least two times a year. This year they decided to bring the event to Kuching, just to see if people are digging the event. Obviously it was a huge success as many teams took part in the competition. Oh! they also have categories for women and teenagers.

Me and my team don't usually play big tournaments but this was totally worth a shot. After all we've been sponsored to join the tournament. I can't remember the exact fee amount, but I guess it was around RM200. We wanted to test the strength of our futsal team, to see if we are strong enough to play against tougher opponents. The price money for the champion is RM3,000, runners up RM2000, and third place RM1000 (if i remember it right). Lady luck wasn't on our side as we were drawn into the same group as the champions of Sarawak Cup, Velocity. So since there are more than a hundred teams, they divided the groups into ....... ok I'm not sure how many groups, but a lot! So each group has like 3 teams. Only 1 team from each group will progress to the next stage (obviously the team that tops the group).

Kenyalang Reds Line-Up at the Harian Metro Futsal Tournament.
Standing (from left): Ayang, Me (I am sooo skinny) , Wang, Neng, Joel
Squatting (from left): Potas, Anthony, Ian

We were defending hard for the first match. 

Ermmm.....so we went there around 2pm, because there were too many groups, so they decided to have two sessions, one in the morning, one in the evening. We were in the evening session, so we came at 2pm. We have to watch 10 matches before it was our turn to play. We were nervous, as we were facing Velocity, a force to be reckoned with. But we held our nerves, and we managed to salvage a draw, 1-1. We could have won the game, but a mistake cost us a goal. A draw means we have to win the next game with at least a two-goal margin.

Some action from the second match. 

I can't remember the name of the team we faced in the second game, but they were quite strong too. Despite their strong resistance, we managed to score two goals. I was cheering my team from the stance. I was a substitute. I don't start matches because I am too darn skinny, and if I were to start, I will definitely get crush! I am a technical player, not a physical one. The only time my team require my services is when we are leading the game comfortably and they need me to keep possession of the ball as I am quite a good passer of the ball. Now, back to the story, so yeah we fought hard and so it ended 2-0 and we topped our group. We made it to the next round. It was an unbelievable achievement. I was so proud of my team mates as they fought hard for the victory and we deserved to enter the next stage.

Last moments from the second match.

In the 4th round, we faced a team called Emmanuel. We know this team pretty well as we used to play them in smaller tournaments. They are a pretty strong team. During the game, we were out played at times as they were really fast and powerful. They have good shooting ability. But we were able to close them down quickly and managed to hold on for a 0-0 draw. This could only mean one thing, penalties. The winner of the penalty shoot out will advance to the next stage. We scored the first penalty, and missed the remaining two. Where as Emmanuel missed only one, and scored two. Technically, we lost......on penalties. We were quite disappointed to lose on penalties, but when luck goes against you, there is nothing you can do.Yes we were disappointed, but at the same time we are proud of our performances. We didn't lose a single game in the group stage. And when we did lose, it was in the 4th round, and on penalties. So nothing to be ashamed off! This tournament gave us a lot of experience simply because it was an OPEN tournament. You get good strong teams playing in OPEN tournaments. At the end of the day, we managed to test the strength of our team, and we were pretty proud about it. YNWA Kenyalang Reds!

-Ian V

A Brand New World, A Brand New Experience

Wurd upppppp peeps! So I finally started blogging. OK I am totally new to this thing. Don't really know how it works, but I am learning new things everyday...exploring its features.. hope to rock this thing in the future. Ok, since this is my first post, I'll just keep it short cause basically I have nothing much to write about. At least not for the time being. 

Oh I actually have another blog, under the same profile name. Also new. But why 2 blogs? Well, I just feel like having 2 blogs. One for motivational purposes, and the other for entertainment purposes. This one is basically for entertainment, for me to go crazyyyyyy! and for me to share fun stuff with you guys. The other blog is for me to show my so called "serious side", to give advice, to bring hope, to cheer people up, to share my sentimental side, and most importantly to motivate people. So yeah, if you are interested, please do not hesitate to follow me on my other blog, http://im4ginaryfri3nd.blogspot.com/

Oh how I wish I am a pro blogger right now. I wonder how do they make a career out of blogging. I will find out eventually. Cause at the moment, I feel like a friggin hobo, the only difference is, I have a home. I am unemployed, and I am quite choosy with jobs. No luck with jobs yet :) So I have too much time to kill. Then I thought to myself... WHY NOT! why not blog :) because i spend so much time online on my bed that I can even build a house on my bed and never leave, except for going down to get some food and to the toilet.. So yea, this is how I end up blogging. 

Don't know what I can do with this blog of mine, but if its main purpose is to keep you entertained, so be it! I will entertain you :) Ok have to go now, please stay tuned for more updates in the future. Stay safe and God Bless! 

-Ian V. 

I know this happens, but I will try my best to update my posts on a regular basis :)