Today, we want to talk about the performance of Nike LeBron 18.
As the champion’s sneaker, LeBron 18 get more attention and expectation. What’s its variation? Below is my comments:
- It’s the best LeBron series shoes in recent 4 years.
- It’s a pair of nice shoes, but also a pair of worse shoes.
- It’s still unsuitable to most of people.
Comprehensive Assessment:
Suited court: indoor court
Suited People: the frontline, inside lane, and the players whose weight is over 80kg and has strong ankle strength.
Suited foot type: normal size, it’s unsuitable for flatfoot
Insole
The insole of LeBron 18 is more suitable to most of people than LeBron 15, 16 and 17. The full-length Zoom Air has excellent feedback, it’s similar to the full-length air cushion of KD12.
If you are heavy weight, you can feel the feedback of rear sole Max air cushion obviously.
So the insole of LeBron 18 is suitable to most of people.
The feedback of forefoot air cushion is excellent. And the grooving design on the outside of forefoot sole is convenient for exerting force when starting.
The air cushion performance of rear sole is undoubtedly. The cushion performance of LeBron series basketball shoes is great.
But the insole of LeBron 18 is unsuitable to the flatfoot. It will be very hurt.
Outsole:
The disadvantage of LeBron 18 is the outsole.
The outsole of LeBron 18 has good traction performance. But the abrasive resistance is worse. After playing a few basketball games, it has the obvious abrasion on the outsole of LeBron 18. It’s unsuitable to wear LeBron 18 to play basketball games on outdoor court.
But the biggest disadvantage of LeBron 18 is the anti-rollover and stability.
The center of gravity is low comparing with other LeBron series basketball shoes. But it’s still high comparing with most of shoes.
The outsole of LeBron 18 doesn’t have the anti-rollover design. The outsole can’t cover the vamp. It can’t guarantee the security. If you don’t have strong ankle strength, it will be easy to sprain the ankle.
But the anti-rollover performance of LeBron 18 is better than LeBron 15 and LeBron 17.
Vamp
The new updated KnitPosite 2.0 improves the supporting performance comparing with LeBron 17.
But it needs to fasten the shoelaces tightly.
The vamp of LeBron 18 has good ductility and supporting performance.
If the vamp has good ductility, the strength won’t be good enough. And if it has good supporting performance, it doesn’t have big moving space.
We can see the obvious deformation of vamp when moving.
As the outsole can’t offer security, the ductility of vamp will be a potential risk.
The size and shoe tree of LeBron 18 is normal. The fitness is good.
The problem of the fitness is the stiff shoe tongue.
Integrality:
The anti-torsion performance of LeBron 18 is good. The insole of LeBron 18 is stiff, but if you are heavy enough, the feedback will be good.
LeBron 18 is also too heavy, the unit weight is 500g. After running a long distance, it will expedite your energy loss.
Rating:
Fitness: 8.5 scores
Supporting Performance of vamp: 9 scores
Feedback of forefoot sole: 9 scores
Cushion performance of rear sole: 10 scores
Anti-torsion Performance: 10 scores
Anti-rollover Performance: 6 scores
Traction Performance: 9 scores
Protection: 7 scores
Overall Supporting Performance: 7.5 scores
Overall Stability: 7.5 scores
Overall Rating: 83.5 scores
LeBron 18 is a pair of nice shoes, it uses good configuration, but it’s un-suitable for most of people. It’s designed for LeBron, it’s a pair of Champion’s basketball shoes, so it’s only suitable to LeBron, not normal people.