If you follow me on social media I bought the NXT but sent it back mostly due to this

This is with the insole in btw I took pics without it as well. Not a trend I’m a fan of personally and I know MJ definitely wouldn’t wear anything like this.

After 10 months, I finally got rid of plantar fasciitis a few weeks ago with stretching, a night splint, stretching and surprisingly (sort of) some BOSU exercise.

Anyways, I decided I did not want to deal with PF again so why risk it with a shoe I don’t find attractive at all and it’s expensive (we all know schwollo pricing rule #1, everything goes on sale). In addition it feels so similar to the Kobe NXT 360 that I really didn’t need see the point.

But as a “reviewer” I did want to share my thoughts anyways and you can decide if it’s for you even though I’m sure there are 100 reviews out by now.

Weight

16 ounces so right on par with every other mid.

Traction

This pattern looks pretty good but given the history of translucent outsoles I’d guess you’d need to wipe fairly frequently. Probably very similar to the Kobe NXT 360

Cushioning

Yay another drop in insole. At least Nike has fixed my biggest peeves about drop ins which is the low side walls.

Nothing ground breaking here. Cushioning directly underfoot feels great but I can’t say it works any better than conventional set ups.

The insole is just a mix of REACT and Cushlon.

The little cut out is for the FF mechanism

If you like drop ins, you’ll like this set up. Very similar in feel to the 360 NXT. I wouldn’t consider it an upgrade or anything.

Fit

As with all Nikes and Kobes these fit true to size for me leaving me a finger width at the front. No heel slip walking around the house either which isn’t surprising.

The real marketing star of the show is the fast fit which really gives zero benefit to the wearer unless you’re really bad at lacing up your shoes.

You can see how thin these cables are but you don’t feel any pressure from them

This is probably the first time I got a good look at fast fit. It’s a plastic wind toy.

Although it works well enough, Fast Fit assumes every player wants the same lace(less?) pressure so you really can’t tune it to your exact liking. I like more pressure over the midfoot and ankle personally. But FF works fine but once again there are non actual benefits to it. The AJ 34 already ditched it which is pretty unsurprising.

And yes I’ll try my best to review the jordans 2021. Looks pretty good to me all around.

Materials

MEHterials

Inspired by Kobe’s love of taking a shower and walking in the rain.

If premium feeling or looking materials are your thing these are not it. The outer layer is stretchy while the base layer is just mesh.

Support and Stability

No issues here although the higher cut doesn’t really have any structure to it.

Here is a shot of the shoe without the insole.

Stability is improved in the heel and isn’t nearly as rounded as the NXT and Exodus. I already sent these back and I forgot to take a pic. Sorry! Forefoot outrigger is stable as always See below

Containment

I don’t foresee any major issues here. Slightly raised midsole.

Conclusion

I didn’t actually wear them so there is no conclusion but if you’re a PF sufferer or want more midfoot support, look elsewhere. If you really want these, why pay $200 when they’ll go on sale soon? I’ve been too busy to write so instead of buying everything out there, I’ll wait for something I’m actually interested in. I’m still waiting on a better coloroway of the Alphadunk and of course the AJ 35. So hope have a review for those in the near future.