I got completely hooked by the predecessor of this shoe, the Gel Nimbus 7. They were fabulously comfortable, provided great support, they "breathed" extraordinarily well due to the mesh tops of the shoes, and most importantly were the most "cushioned" shoes I've ever owned. With the Gel Nimbus 7's, it was like walking on comfortable, supportive pillows. I bought a couple of pair of them at $120/piece and loved them.

Fast forward to the Gel Nimbus 8. I snapped up a pair of them mid last year and wore them for quite a while. Again, they are extraordinarily comfortable and provided great support -- but there were 2 big changes from the previous generation. First, the mesh tops now had a lightweight fabric covering them so while they still "breathed" better than most shoes they no longer "breathed" as well as before. Unfortunately (and most importantly), they no longer provide nearly as good a level of cushioning as their predecessors did.

I later griped a bit to the shoe salesman and he agreed that he'd heard a fair number of complaints about this but said that they changed the shoe to make it more durable than the 7 and perhaps they'd leaned too far towards durability at the expense of cushioning.

Given the two shoes, I'd take the 7's again in a heartbeat -- and in fact I just ordered 2 more pairs of the 7's -- giving me 3 "extra" pairs to cover me for the next 3-4 years.

Bottom line: 8 is a good shoe but 7 was better. The 7's and 8's are heavily discounted now and are going for half the price of when they were new -- stock up! 3 stars

I've been running since 1980 and have always bought Asics shoes since 81. I have been using the GT models for a long time. But since visiting a sporting goods store, and was informed that the Nimbus VII would be a good shoe for my high arches. I bought them. They were great I ran in them for several months. All thought the winter of 2006. So when the version VIII's came out i went right down and bought them for $119.
I was disappointed. After just a few weeks of using them there seemed to be no cushioning left in them. The fit just wasn't the same.
Since then i have switched back to the GT's. Getting the GT2120's proved to be disappointing also. They seem very flat and no cushioning in the forefoot. 3 stars

I bought this shoe to replace my Nimbus V and I'm very happy with it. It's lighter than the previous version but that also means it's thinner so it can be a cit cold for winter running but I just wear two pairs of socks and look forward to being cool in the summer. 4 stars

I ordered this item through Amazon from Eastbay. Watch out on this one -- the picture on the Amazon web site does not update when you do your radio button selection, you end up ordering the "wrong color", you return it and get charged for the shipping for the enclosed "return mail paste-on" voucher. That despite writing a note asking Eastbay not to charge me and telling them about the failure of the website to update the picture when completing the order (so I would have known I was ordering a different color than the one shown). 1 star

I bought the Asics Gel Nimbus VIII a few weeks ago and I've used them three times. They have a comfortable feel and I've enjoyed running in them. I usually run 3 or 4 times a week and average a 4 mile run each time out. Someone who runs similar millage will find these to be a good running shoe that will be comfortable to run in. This is the second time I've purchased this model and I had a good experience with the first pair as well. 4 stars