Could These possibly be my favorite sneakers of this season?? Let's talk about it and find out!!
What is going on everyone?? AirJayP here and today have I got a pretty sweet pair to go over with you guys. Anthony Edwards very first signature model from Adidas. I will start by saying the anticipation for me with these was very high, and I will say my expectations as well. How Did they fare??
Traction: 5
No surprise with the start here as we all know I love a basketball sneaker with some great traction. These right here gave me great bite on the court and offered me no issues at any point. I felt great laterally and vertically. I could cut, stop, and get to my spots as I wanted and just had a really good experience traction-wise in these. The sneakers do feature a solid rubber outsole that almost has a translucent look or feel to it in my opinion. I was honestly impressed with how they performed on dusty surfaces. I was a little worried or thought they might offer me some issues, but they exceeded my expectations there. I was very impressed all around with the traction setup on these. Job well done Adidas!
Fit: 4
Moving right along to the fit. I personally went down half a size in these which is normally my tendency for basketball sneakers, but almost always my tendency from Adidas as is. These fit me very well and to my liking with going down half. The only complaint here, and possibly out of the whole shoe in general is straight out of the box they are very, I mean very tough to get on. The shoe almost feels like when putting it on there is an internal bootie system to the sneaker, but there is not. I will say taking the top eyelet out to get them on helps tremendously, and after some play time in these they do loosen up quite a bit. I will not say that they are now easy to get on, but they are definitely easier than when I first started in them. Once on your foot, they will be great as long as the sizing is correct. As mentioned before I size down in Adidas to begin with, so I would go with normal Adidas sizing or what you have used in the past for their basketball models for the best fit.
Lockdown: 5
We will tie this into the fit a little bit here. As long as you have the right fit, you are going to have once again a great aspect to the shoe with the lockdown category. I personally was a little hesitant about how these would work due to the materials not being stiffer or worried that I may have some movement within the shoe. This was very exceeded as the lockdown was great on the court with these. Going back to how tough they are to get on, this in my opinion helped make sure you were good and locked into the shoe. A feature that maybe was tough on me in one way actually helped in another. Once getting the shoe on, you feel very nice and locked in, in the heel of the shoe with great comfort from the heel and Achilles padding. There is a pretty wide base for the actual sneaker, so I felt no feeling of tipping or an issue of rolling over my ankle from sitting too high, etc. The lacing system looks kind of odd on how it would work, but it worked very well in my opinion by letting you be able to get the materials tight and wrapped around your foot. When getting to my spots, whether it be driving, pulling up, or just sudden change of direction movements the lockdown felt great and once again exceeded all expectations I had for this sneaker.
Materials: 4
I want to give the materials a perfect score. I may be being a little harsh because I did love everything pretty much about them except for two items. One is that the upper on these gets very dirty and scratched up easily. I haven't cleaned mine yet, so it is tough to say whether the scuffs, etc, will come off, but I think they will. The same goes for this small toe cap area where they used a piece of felt/suede type material. This area gets very dirty as well. The second issue is the shoes are more on the heavier side. The materials are not the lightest, and I do think this will bother some. I will say that once I got used to these, it did not bother me. Going from a more lightweight shoe to these though was an adjustment at first.
Now let's talk about the good with the materials. The upper is very ventilated and breathable on what I am calling the "shell" that from images I thought would be a super stiff/hard shell-like material. That is far from what it is in hand, as it is fairly soft, but flexes and moves as you do on court. The materials also felt as if they molded to my foot nicely, and I believe that goes back to as well why they are somewhat easier to get onto my foot now than when they were straight out of the box. If you can get over the shoe being a little heavier than maybe the modern-day basketball shoe as I was, then you will have no issues with these performance-wise from a materials standpoint.
Cushion: 5
The cushion is an aspect that I think a lot were hoping was more plush, but I find myself sort of in the middle ground here where it was in some ways a near-perfect setup for me. I have mentioned so many times before that I have always preferred court feel, but with age comes the need for more cushion. With this actual pair, you are getting a Boost midsole with Lightstrike cushioning. I enjoyed the blend of both because had the shoe featured full boost everything then it would have been a little plush for my liking. I felt the mix with Lightstrike offered a great mix of cushion with responsiveness. The shoe is comfortable in my opinion, and offered a "feel" from the setup that I really enjoyed. There will be some who may wish or want more cushion out of these, but for me, this setup worked great and felt very comfortable on the court for me.
Overall: 5
I am not out here normally giving out perfect scores, but other than a few small quirks I absolutely loved playing in this shoe. I have mentioned the "fun" aspect with a basketball sneaker before and this was one of those where every time out I just had fun in them. This was a highly anticipated shoe for me and sometimes when that happens our expectations can be let down just because we have the bar set so high. This was not the case with these as they pretty much exceeded every aspect I had even pictured to begin with. These are my current favorite basketball sneakers to play in on court and they have knocked off the Greek Freak 5. Let's see how long these can stay on top!! Have I even mentioned the colorways/how sick in general the shoe looks??? These, I believe are the best-looking signatures out right now. In my opinion you just can't go wrong with these. I am glad I got to try them, and will be going after some more colorways as well. From appearance to performance, I had a blast in the AE1, and would highly recommend them as well!
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