I have a foam roller and I certainly find it useful. By the time I got it I had already relieved most of the overall tightness in the IT band but there were still a lot of hot spots.
The nike frees are supposed to be barefoot trainers. I.E. something to protect your feet but simulate being barefoot. They have three different ones going from more support to less support and closer to barefoot in order to "train" the feet. They are meant for runners to train foot strength and ankle mobility, etc... but they have been recommended to me as a good shoe for lifting....basically flat soled extremely flexible lightweight shoes.
If they feel like marshmallows I certainly don't want them! But that wouldn't make sense since they are not designed as cushioning shoes in that way. Shouldn't be any more marshmallowy than chucks but if you put on a pair of chucks nad you never wore anything like that for the first time you might feel like you are walking on air which I guess someone might describe as marshmallowy.
But they were recommended by eric cressey. You know how much respect I have for cressey and it was a link that was part of a purchase I made so I can't really link that. He basically just said that besides chucks he thinks they are a good all around lifting shoe and training shoe for the gym. I don't really know but I'm gonna get em from Zappos and I will return them if I think they suck....I'm pretty sure they have easy returns
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I just have decided I don't want the heel but at the same time I don't want to get more chucks. The sole is not hard but I don't think it will be mushy any more than chucks are mushy..which they are not. And I like to have chucks to walk around in too and I can't get two pairs on them
I will let you know what they are like.