As a fan of the Harden series for years, I have always been looking forward to seeing improvement in its shoes. So when it comes to the Harden Vol.4, it is for sure that I will take a shot. And since I myself was also very curious about the setups and techs of the shoes, I decided to check it out, and here is the destruction of the shoes.
In the toe part of the shoes, it adopts the suede material whereas the vamp is in the whole made of mesh material.
For the shoelaces, it is the elastic nylon material that can enhance the wrapping performance.
Inside the lining of the heel is printed with “Hassayampa 106th Street”. With respect to the words, there is something fun behind it. It is said that it is the address of a barbershop that Harden frequented.
The leather heels of the shoes, which are surrounded by TPUs that are also printed with a three-dimensional logo of Harden, can enhance the support performance.
In the TPU, it writes the “DESIGNED WITH JAMES HARDEN”, indicating that Harden was involved in the design of the 4th version.
For the outsole, it’s patterned with deformed grids that are greatly helpful in offering grip.
However, what is most surprising and touches me most is the numbers in the outsole. The “0001.9.59.11.12” is the birthday of Harden’s mother. So we can see that however famous and successful Harden is, he still puts his mother first, which is quite moving.
With regard to the weight, a single shoe is about 395g, which I think is of average performance.
Separating the left shoe in the middle, we can see clearly the internal structure and the full foot Lightstrike cushioning material matched with TPU stabilizer.
And then cutting open the vamp and the sole, we can also see that the inner side of the vamp is made of fabric lining which is comfortable and skin-friendly.
The heel is filled with quite thick foam and surrounded by a TPU, making the heel stability stand out.
The blue insole has also been printed with the symbolic logo of Harden.
And the upper layer of the insole is made of foam material while the lower layer is made of non-woven fabric.
In recent years, Adidas basketball shoes are all equipped with soft foaming material as the midsole cushioning, and it therefore needs a larger stabilizer to reinforce the midsole that can reduce the deformation caused by the force brought to the midsole.
Because of this, the TPU is so large that it almost covers the whole sole.
Printed on the TPU is the words “SS19 BASKETBALL_N3XTL3V3L”.
Here are the data of the TPU in size 42.5 shoes. Its length is about 208mm; its width in the front foot is about 85.45mm and that of the heel is about 57.47mm.
In addition to that, the thickness of the TPU is about 3.84mm.
Then in terms of the cushioning, the LightStrike is is responsible for the shock absorption and feedback.
Overall:
Although the brand adopts the large TPU to stabilize the midsole and this method has also been imitated by many brands, it just turned out that this can not stand up to the long time testing. Maybe someday Adidas will return to the double-density midsole.