A nice surprise – Adidas PB18-KP
If you don’t want to read a long review, then the conclusion is “get a pair, if you can”.
I have to admit that the reason I made the purchase simply because I like the unicorn drawing of the outsole. Other than that, I am not really a fan of Kristaps Porziņģis. I mean, I like the way he plays, but not to the point that I got to have his kicks. The colorway I got was not available in Taiwan. Adidas Taiwan had a pair with the same unicorn on the bottom but with a totally different color combo on the upper. So, anyway, I bought it for the look but immediately put it in the stack with my other shoes that I have in the office and forgot about it. A few weeks ago, when I tried to clean up my office and then I reunited with this pair again and decided to play in it.
When I pulled it out of the box, I did not like the shape of the toe box. If you look from the side, it looks just so flat. Because of that, I kind worried about the fit of it. My concerns, went away once I put it on since the upper was made with an elastic knit material. The first game I played in it, I did not tie the laces all the way up and tight enough because I felt the shoes fits kind snug. However, once I kind broke it in and ran with it, I retied the shoes and made sure it way secured all the way on the top lace hole. The fit is really good and I liked the way it stayed on my feet. There are two soft pillows around the ankle and that also helped to keep my feet locked in. Before I go any further on the shoes, I like to make a point where in today’s trend, low top shoes are the hot items. However, the flexibility comes with the low tops also bring a lot of the issues with security and loose ankle fit of the shoes. Of course, changing materials and designs do help to prevent the low tops shoes getting loose in the middle of the play. However, I firm believe that finding a pair nice traditional high top is the real solution. By the way, I bought size 12.5 for this and it is my true size and it fits really good IMO.
Now let’s talk about the cushioning. I am not sure if I mentioned this before, one of my beloved shoes in recent years and I keeps going back to is the UA Clutchfit Drive that uses MicroG cushioning. At one time, I had like three pairs in total, two high tops and one low tops, and just loved those. Even until today, I still have two pairs that I sometimes would play with. The problem with these, is because of the ages of the shoes, I am afraid both of them would fall apart sooner or later. The cushioning of the PB18 is very similar to the MicroG that I love, but just a touch firmer. Because of this, I am now thinking if I want to pick up a few more pairs, including low tops, in case I can no longer play in my Clutchfit Drive. To make the long story short, if you are a big guy or you want the soft landing feel of the shoes, then this is the right one.
The shoes also are equipped with all the necessary modern basketball shoes design elements. It has a pretty extend out outrigger on the front side and a plastic made torsional plate that extend to both sides of the shoes. I am going to switch gear again and talking about another myth of the current trend – carbon fiber plate. Yes, carbon fiber plate is light and strong. If it used properly, it does provide additional support and security for the shoes. However, carbon fiber is not essential and with proper designed and shaped, plastic plate can be as strong as a carbon fiber plate, if not stronger. Think about this way, Nike now puts only a small square piece plate in the midsole for most of their shoes now and I really doubt this would do any better. You should only pay for the function and performance of the shoes, but not for the brand names or players’ names.
To sum up, this pair really surprised me. I bought it for the look and I ended up really like the performance of it. Most of these are still floating around over the internet for about less than NTD 2,500 a pop. If you can find one and you need a pair of new joint. Get one.