Month: May 2021

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New Balance FuelCell Rebel V2 Performance Review

Most of runners are familiar with New Balance FuelCell Rebel running shoes. The first FuelCell Rebel series running shoes are released in 2019.

The shoebox is still red and printed with white NB logo.

Unboxing:

The main colorway is yellow and white.

Let’s have a look at the lateral viewing angle of vamp. The vamp is made of yellow and white tulle. The side vamp is decorated with blue N logo. It can increase the stability of vamp.

The inboard of vamp, the rear part also has a blue N logo.

The viewing angle of shoe head has asymmetrical crashworthy design which is mainly on the position of toes. The crashworthy shoe head has NB logo.

The viewing angle of heelpiece, the middle heelpiece is decorated with a red line. The heelpiece has built-in TPU to increase the strength.

The outsole is made of three different materials and it’s divided into 4 parts.

There is a piece of black U shape rubber plate which covers the periphery of forefoot sole improves the abrasive resistance. The pattern is twill weave with triangular groove design. The middle forefoot sole is yellow rubber plate. The pattern is triangle embossing patter, twill weave and triangle hollow-out. We can see the white foam of insole from the hollow-out design, it offers the abrasive resistance and traction performance.

The inner side and outer side of arch have anti-skidding modules.

The outboard part of arch insole has obvious raised design. It’s different with the arch design of traditional running shoes.

This kind of design can offer a good protection to the foot when running. It improves the resilience of the shoes.

The density of heelpiece rubber outsole is high, the stiffiness is also the strongest. The pattern is still diagonal strip and sunk triangle combination. The outboard area is big, it can offer better abrasive resistance.

The insole uses transparent white foam design. That is FuelCell technology.

The FuelCell technology was developed by New Balance Innovation Design Studio. As the official declared, it has the strongest propulsion and energy feedback. New Balance released the first pair of running shoes with FuelCell technology in 2017.

The outboard of insole has a piece of laser plate which has ‘new balance’ and the series ‘FUELCELL’.

Let’s have a look at the vamp, the vamp is made of integrated knitted mesh fabric.The fitness, appearance and air permeability is good.

The shoelaces position is reinforced by hot-melting coating. The shoelaces holes are flat type. Both of the appearance and anti-skid resistance have been improved.

The shape of shoe tongue is designed according to the foot type. It’s thin and ventilated.

The suture line is good.

The shoe-pad uses classic double layers design. The upper layer fabric is anti-skidding and the bottom layer foam has cushion performance.

The inner side of shoe head is added with a piece of cambered cushioning lining. It’s comfortable after wearing.

Overall:

  1. As a pair of light running shoes which uses the NB core cushioning technology FuelCell. It’s comfortable.
  2. Appearance: The yellow and white colorway is suitable for wearing in Summer. The appearance is nice. The thin mesh fabric vamp has good air permeability.
  3. The cost performance is good.
  4. It has good anti-skidding performance. I used to run after raining, the anti-skid resistance is good.
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Unboxing & Closed Look: CONVERSE G4 LOW

CONVERSE G4 is made for the hoopsters who have full explosive power. The design inspiration comes from the classic CONVERSE ERX. The low type design is flexible. With ZOOM AIR cushion and NIKE REACT technology, the configuration is good.

CONVERSE G4 LOW

The shoebox is black. It’s printed with CONVERSE logo.

The vamp is made of stiff fabric, and it’s covered with thermocompression bonding material to increase the durability and protection.

The shoe tongue is jointed with mesh fabric and leather to avoid moving and improve the comfort level.

The shoe heel is filled with thick foam to plying-up the ankle.

The shoelace holes are arranged in staggered form.

The heelpiece leather with surrounding TPU to improve the supporting performance.

The rubber outsole has upturning design.

The three grooves are designed according to human streamlining design, which improve the flexibility. The multi-directional pattern improves the traction performance.

The blue React material on the rear sole can improve the cushion performance.

Both of the inner side and outer side of heelpiece use upturning design to offer better stability.

The shoe-pad is printed with bee pattern.

The shoe-pad is also printed with the technology information ‘NIKE REACT + NIKE ZOOM AIR’.

The length of EUR42.5 shoe-pad of CONVERSE G4 LOW is about 273mm.

The width of EUR42.5 shoe-pad of CONVERSE G4 LOW is about 92.14mm.

The thickness of of EUR42.5 shoe-pad of CONVERSE G4 LOW is about 4.62mm.

The inner shoe-tag

After taking away the shoe-pad, we can see that the forefoot sole uses fan shaped ZOOM AIR cushion.

From the injecting holes of heelpiece, we can feel the blue REACT material.

The unit weight of EUR42.5 CONVERSE G4 LOW is about 371.7g.

Overall:

The design of CONVERSE G4 is modern. The size is standard. The shoe tongue is thick and comfortable. The overall fitness is good. The forefoot sole uses ZOOM Air cushion and rear sole uses React technology. The feedback is good. The upturning rubber outsole improves the stability. We will test and share the performance review of CONVERSE G4 with you soon.

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Jordan Zion 1 Performance Review

Zion Williamson has his first pair of signature shoes after signing with Air Jordan not more than 2 years. Many guys should have purchased the Jordan Zion 1. Which position is suitable for it? We want to share the performance review of Jordan Zion 1 with you today.

The colorway that we share today is the white and black one. The designing inspiration uses Z as the kernel to work in concert with Zion’s name and combining with his favorite super hero’s armour.

The vamp is divided into two parts by ‘Z’. There is a big area of hot-melting material to cover the rear side of shoes.

The shoe head has hiding locking lace up under the mesh fabric. It can improve the fitness and locking performance.


The shoe head and shoe tongue is decorated with gold Jumpman logo and Zion logo.


The inner sleeve is printed with ZION. And the shoe heel also has gold ZION logo.

The outsole is conventional herringbone pattern which has good traction performance. It uses big area of semi-transparent rubber on the outsole. It’s more suitable to play on the indoor court.

The first feeling after wearing Jordan Zion 1 is the light weight. It’s a big surprise. The insole uses full-length Air Sole and forefoot Zoom Air cushion configuration. The feedback is good. The insole has built-in stabilizing plate. The stabilizity and anti-torsion performance can be guaranteed.

Which position is Jordan Zion 1 suitable to?

The shoe design is normal, it’s suitable for the players of every position. The GEN Zion is the first released colorway. It also has ZNA，Noah and Marion colorways. The feedback of forefoot sole is good. But the cushion performance is not good enough for the Zion who is the powerful player.
The size of Jordan Zion 1 is standard. You can choose the normal size.

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Deconstructed Jordan Zion 1

Jordan Zion 1 has been released for more than one month. Recently, the manuscripts and configuration of Jordan Zion 1 has been publicly disclosed. As the first pair of basketball shoes of the most potential basketball players of AJ brand, what about its configuration?

Jordan Zion 1 uses Air Sole Stobel with Zoom Air and anti-torqued plate combination. The Air Sole Strobel cushion is similar to insole fabric. It’s also used on PG4 and PG5. It’s soft, but the cushion performance is not good enough.

There is a piece of Zoom Air cushion on the forefoot sole, but this piece of Zoom Air cushion is small. With the TPU plate on the midsole, this configuration is the same as Kyrie 1. It maybe enough for the defenders like Kyrie. But Zion is a power type frontline, even if it adds a layer of Air Sold Strobel cushion, but I still think that the cushion performance is not good enough for Zion.

On the manuscripts, the forefoot Zoom air cushion should be oval type. But it’s changed to small rectangle type Zoom air cushion. It may consider the cost, so NIKE changes the Zoom type. I’m disappointed at it.

The vamp is made of mesh fabric, hot-melting and articulated type shoe tongue. The forefoot vamp has a fixing lace up. The padding of vamp is not thick.

The outsole uses conventional herringbone pattern. As you know, the traction performance of herringbone pattern is good.

Manuscripts

In the begining, the designer has confirmed to use Z as the core designing concepts. The reinforced design on the shoe head is asymmetric design. The design of shoe tongue is interesting. I think that it may refer to the air pocket design of LBJ18.

The insole is separated forefoot sole and rear sole. The position of forefoot sole has pattern and it has flyman logo. The position of midsole should have a exposed TPU plate design, but it hasn’t been showed on the manuscript.

We can see the configuration of Jordan Zion 1 clearly from the deconstructed picture of insole. The insole uses full-length Air Sole Strobel, and the forefoot sole has a piece of small Zoom air cushion, and there is a layer of insole material under the Zoom air cushion. It looks not thick. The outer layer is the rubber of outsole.

But the manuscript is different. The forefoot Zoom air cushion type has been changed.

The designer of Jordan Zion 1 is Vianney De Montgolfier who comes from France. He used to design the football shoes such as Tiempo Legend 6. He also uses similar design on Zion 1, such as the fitting system of forefoot and the design of shoe tongue etc.

Overall, there are not many lightspots on the manuscripts. The design of Jordan Zion 1 is not bad, but the configuration is not good enough. It’s on the middle level. The location of Zion 1 is higher than PG series. So the price will be higher than PG series.

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NIKE PG 5 Performance Review

Only if mentioning PG5, people would like to compare it with PG4. But we needs to know that the bad feedback of PG4 is due to several parts. Firstly, NIKE hasn’t paid much attention on the design and appearance. Secondly, the status of Paul George was not good. Thirdly, the overall performance of PG4 is not good, it’s below average. So the price of PG4 descends a lot.

What’s the level of PG5? The answer is qualified. It doesn’t have obvious disadvantages. The overall performance is on average level. But except the light weight, it doesn’t have any other obvious superiority.

PG5 is comfortable. The padding of shoe upper is thick. The sole is soft. But comparing with ZOOM air cushion, the resilience of PG5 is not good enough.

The feedback of full-length Air sole cushion insole is good, but after a period, the feedback will descend. The Air Sole cushion performance will be weaken.

Certainly the PG5 is comfortable. And it’s light. The unit weight is only about 350g.

The fitness of PG5 is still just qualified. For example, if the fitness of PG1, PG2 & PG3 can get 80 scores, the fitness of PG5 can only get 68 scores.

For the supporting performance, comparing with PG4, the lateral support of PG5 is improved. The supporting performance of vamp is also qualified.

The lateral support of PG5 is reinforced. The outsole is also added with anti-rollover design. The center of gravity of insole is not low. The anti-rollover performance of PG5 is qualified.

The outsole of PG5 is the same as Zoom Kobe 9. The traction performance is good. It doesn’t have obvious skid on kinds of court.

Overall, PG5 is a pair of qualified light basketball shoes for the defenders. The performance of PG5 is better than PG4. And it has several colorways for choice. The  present price is not high. If you are interested in it, you can have a try on physical store.

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The Configuration of PUMA Disc Rebirth Porsche

For the first time, PUMA combines its Motorsport racing lines with PUMA Hoops basketball shoes, and it uses PROSCHE design to released the brand-new PUMA x Porsche Legacy Hoops limited item-PUMA Disc Rebirth Porsche professional basketball shoes which combines the PUMA’s exclusive DISC technology with Porsche’s design to create a new and refreshing basketball shoes.

PUMA Disc was born on 1991. It’s the initiative disc closure system with no shoelaces, which was a powerful shock to the sporting industry at that time. The revolutionary character innovative technology utilizes the DISC turntable to lock the inside steel wire system, so the shoe can quickly and perfectly fit the foot. It can offer great supporting performance and stability to the foot. PUMA Disc turntable system can avoid the inconvenience and risk of loosening the traditional laces too tight or too loose. It only needs to turn and press DISC shutting turntable easily to adjust the fitness quickly.

With the integrated special shoe tongue design, the vamp can fit the instep perfectly. The lateral string device can connect the shoes from front end, side vamp and the shoe heel in series to create the most perfect fit of the shoes and foot. When putting on and taking off, it only needs to press the DISC turntable button, then it can loosen the vamp quickly. It’s convenient and save the time.

It’s the first time that PUMA Hoops cooperate with Motorsport. It uses Disc Rebirth which uses PUMA Disc turntable technology as the prototype and releases the brand-new PUMA Disc Rebirth Porsche basketball shoes. The vamp is jointed with ventilated mesh fabric with leather. The forefoot vamp has CPU sticky strap to cover the foot. The side vamp is decorated with semi-transparent TPU plate to reinforce the lateral support which can prevent the risk of rollover when moving.

The outsole uses durable rubber to increase the traction performance. The outsole is black and yellow. It also has Puma logo.

The insole uses full-length PROFOAM technology to make light weight and high resilient feedback. The Disc turntable system above the shoe tongue can make the foot and ankle fit the vamp perfectly to offer higher stability and fitness.

The side vamp has Porsche hang tag. And the shoe heel has the mark of 911.

The main colorway is black and white. The appearance of PUMA Disc Rebirth Porsche looks cool. The configuration is also great. It’s limit to sale now. So the present price is also high. If you are interested in it, it’s better not hesitate for a long time.

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NIKE Vaporfly NEXT% 2 Performance Review

Nike brand-new running shoes Vaporfly Next% 2 have been released in global. The vamp of Vaporfly Next% 2 uses engineering mesh fabric to replace the Vaporweave material of last generation. The insole of Vaporfly Next% 2 still uses full-length ZoomX foam and full-length carbon plate which offers excellent driving power. The present price has good cost performance. Many people should have purchased it. What’s its actual running performance? Let’s talk about its performance today.

The running performance of Vaporfly next%2

The shoelaces of Vaporfly Next% 2 is the same as Alphafly. It’s present best shoelaces of racing shoes. There is a layer of pad pasting to cover and protect the toes. The shoe collar is also added a round of suedette material which improve the comfort level. The soft resilience of Vaporfly Next% 2 is not better than Endorphin Speed. It may need time to breaking-in. But I don’t want to wear my Endorphin Speed now after trying Vaporfly Next% 2. The carbon plate is also comfortable. It can offer the driving power when running.

Deconstructed Vaporfly next%2

The Nike Zoom vaporfly NEXT% 2 running shoes is light. It can help you to improve the running speed. The insole adds cushioning configuration which reduces the weight of shoes and offer excellent energy feedback and comfortable experience. The vamp is thin and has good air permeability to keep the foot cool. The shoe head has TPU coating to improve the abrasive resistance and protection. The shoe tongue and shoe collar are added with padding to improve the comfort level and reduce the pressure of shoe tongue to the foot. The special insole ZoomX foam and full-length carbon plate can improve the running speed. The resilience is more excellent.

What kind of people is suitable to wear Vaporfly NEXT% 2?

I think that NIKE Vaporfly NEXT% 2 is a pair of top-level racing shoes.It’s not suitable for normal people to jogging. As for light weight, the supporting performance and protection of Vaporfly NEXT% 2 is not good. But the cushion performance is suitable to all kinds of people. So we suggest you to choose the running shoes by your own request.

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Deconstructed NIKE KD14

NIKE KD14 has been released. There are many details such as the return of Velcro, insole configuration(Cushlon foam with ZOOM STROBEL air cushion) which catch many people’s attention.


KD14 EP
CZ0170-101

Splitting the left shoe of KD14 from middle part

KD14 A-A section

Separating the vamp and insole of KD14 right shoe

The inspiration of Velcro comes from the sickle shape of Death. It improves the fitness.

The vamp has three layers. The first layer is jacquard weave, the second layer vamp has lots of ventilated holes to improve the air permeability.

The third layer is soft.

The surface of shoe-pad uses fabric material. It’s anti-skid and comfortable.

The ZOOM STROBEL cushion has groove design which is convenient for adapting to the moving direction of foot.

The length of EUR42.5 ZOOM STROBEL air cushion is about 276mm.

The width of of EUR42.5 forefoot ZOOM STROBEL air cushion is about 86.82mm.

The thickness of EUR42.5 forefoot ZOOM STROBEL air cushion is about 7.21mm.

The thickness of EUR42.5 ZOOM STROBEL air cushion of rear sole is about 7.75mm.

The insole uses CUSHLON cushioning foam which is light and has good resilience.

The outboard TPU plate and arch TPU stabilizing plate improve the stability of insole.

The length of EUR42.5 TPU plate is about 126.70mm.

The width of EUR42.5 middle TPU plate is about 27.82mm.

The width of EUR42.5 TPU plate is about 4.19mm.


The length of EUR42.5 arch TPU stabilizing plate is about 81.74mm.


The width of EUR42.5 arch TPU stabilizing plate is about 49.23mm.

The thickness of EUR42.5 arch TPU stabilizing plate is about 4.08mm.

The rubber outsole is colorful. The XDR outsole is durable, and it’s suitable to kinds of courts.


The thickness of EUR42.5 outsole rubber is about 3.72mm. It can satisfy the daily request.

The deconstructed parts of KD14

Let’s have a look at the difference of KD14 and KD13. Both of them are EUR42.5.

KD14

KD13

KD14 (above) uses ZOOM STROBEL air cushion, arch TPU stabilizing plate and TPU plate which offer better stability.
KD13 (bottom) uses ZOOM STROBEL air cushion and independent forefoot ZOOM Air cushion and arch TPU stabilizing plate. The resilience feedback is more obvious.

Both of KD14 (left) and KD13 (right) uses inner sleeve design which fits the foot.
The Velcro design of KD14 offer better fitness.

KD14 (left) uses grenadine vamp. Comparing with the mesh fabric vamp of KD13 (right), the overall strength is better and it’s more durable.

Both of the shoe-pad of KD14 (left) and KD13 (right) uses fabric material.

The reverse side of KD14 (left) and KD13 (right) shoe-pad has groove which accord with ZOOM STROBEL air cushion.

Both of KD14 (left) and KD13 (right) use ZOOM STROBEL air cushion.

EUR42.5 KD14(above) ZOOM STROBEL air cushion, the width of forefoot cellosilk is 63.80mm.
EUR42.5 KD13(bottom) ZOOM STROBEL air cushion, the width of forefoot cellosilk is 61.62mm. The difference is 2mm. But KD14 is more stable.

The TPU plate and arch TPU stabilizing plate of KD14 (left) is bigger than KD13 (right).

The thickness of KD14(left) TPU plate is about 4.19mm. The thickness of KD13(right) forefoot TPU plate is about 2.43mm.
The thickness of KD14(left) arch TPU stabilizing plate is about 4.08mm. The thickness of KD13(right) arch TPU stabilizing plate is about 2.43mm

The thickness of EUR42.5 KD14 forefoot sole (insole + outsole) is about 17.53mm. The rear sole (insole + outsole) is about 25.24mm. The drop height is 7.71mm.

The thickness of EUR42.5 KD13 forefoot sole (insole + outsole) is about 18.02mm. The rear sole (insole + outsole) is about 25.12mm. The drop height is 7.1mm.

Deconstructed Report
Vamp: The grenadine vamp has good air permeability and durability. The big Velcro design improves the fitness.
Insole: KD14 uses CUSHLON cushioning foam and adjusted ZOOM STROBEL air cushion. It’s stable and comfortable. The feedback of ZOOM STROBEL air cushion is obvious. The side TPU plate and arch TPU stabilizing plate is useful.
Overall: Comparing with KD13, KD14 has improved the strength of vamp and fitness. The disadvantages of KD13 is the soft vamp and bad supporting performance. It reduces the independent forefoot ZOOM Air cushion. The insole uses Cushlon cushioning foam. The side TPU plate and arch TPU stabilizing plate are reinforced. It doesn’t use the independent forefoot fanshaped air cushion, so it reduces the risk of cracked sole.
Each generation of new models will make changes. But maybe not each change is suitable to each one, but every improvement is worthy of recognition.

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Unboxing and Closed Look: Adidas Solar Boost 3

When speaking of Adidas series running shoes, people must think of Ultra Boost series. Recently, Ultra Boost series bring the brand-new Ultra Boost 21 and Solar Boost 3.  Let’s have a look at Solar Boost 3 today.

The appearance is still Adidas style. It’s not so exaggerated as Ultra Boost 21.

The main colorway is white and decorated with gray and orange.

The vamp is made of gray mesh fabric. It uses PRIMEGREEN recycle environmental protection material.

The heelpiece is made of unique foam and Boost bilayer structure. It’s not only soft and resilient, but also stable.

The outsole is added with brand-new adidas LEP system. It’s useful to improve the performance.

The insole of Solar Boost 3 is still made of foam and Boost bilayer structure. It’s comfortable. It can be compared with UltraBoost. The insole is thick, with the LEP system, the foot feeling is similar to full-length carbon plate running shoes. Overall, Solar Boost 3 is comfortable. It has good resilience, the feedback is great.

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NIKE ZOOM G.T. CUT Performance Review

Recently, NIKE released the brand-new ZOOM G.T. CUT, which uses full-length ZOOM air cushion and U shape Zoom air cushion with React shoe-pad configuration. Many guys are interested in it. Today we will share the performance review of NIKE ZOOM G.T. CUT with you.

Fitness: The fitness is excellent. It can fix the foot well after fastening the shoelaces.

Cushion Performance: It uses uses full-length ZOOM air cushion and U shape Zoom air cushion with React shoe-pad configuration. The forefoot sole is soft. The resilience is good when shooting at the basket.

Supporting Performance: The strength of vamp is good. With both sides of outboard TPU reinforcement, the supporting performance is good. The center of gravity is not high. The forefoot sole is wide, so the anti-rollover performance is good.

Air Permeability: We can see the ventilated holes on shoe head and shoe tongue, and the vamp is made of mesh fabric, moreover, it doesn’t have inner sleeve. The air permeability should be good.

Traction Performance: The outsole pattern is herringbone and water ripple. The traction performance is good without absorbing the dust. But after the outsole absorbing the dust, the traction performance would be reduced. I need to test the traction performance on wood floor.

Abrasive Resistance: We have found the rough selvedge after playing about 2 hours basketball. The abrasive resistance of ZOOM G.T. CUT is similar to ZOOM Kobe series shoes. We suggest you not to wear ZOOM G.T. CUT to play on outside court, it’s suitable to play on wood floor.

Size: The size is standard.

The unit weight of EUR42.5 ZOOM G.T. CUT is 415g.

Overall: The configuration of brand-new ZOOM G.T. CUT is good, but the actual performance is not good. The inboard supporting performance is the disadvantage. And the traction performance is not good especially after absorbing the dust.