Another week, another surprise – Nike Kyrie 6
I guess I have been very lucky lately. Another pair of shoes that I had no expectation to start with ended up being a pretty nice one.
I made this pair of K6 on nikeid sometime last year. I did this because I wanted to pay tribute to my fellow Buckeye, Jimmy Jackson, when he had the special colorway of the Nike Solo Flight 93 during the Big 10 tournament. This special edition was actually available in Taiwan back then, but I went for the Phoenix Suns colorway that worn by Cedric Ceballos during the dunk contest. Anyway, just like the Adidas shoes that I had on last week, I purchased the shoes for the look and also trying to bring back some good memories for the days I lived and enjoyed my life in Columbus, Ohio.
Let’s clear a few things out of the way that kind complained by most of the people. First of all, cushioning. I have heard people saying the cushioning is not adequate. However, for the times I had it on, it was pretty nice. It is not the plush feel that I prefer for sure, but it is definitely good enough for a big guy like myself. This goes with another myth that commonly known that all Kyrie shoes would have good court feel. To be honest with you, I don’t believe that is the case here. The cushioning I felt is definitely better towards at the front part of the outsole, which echoes the design where the zoom pod is at the front part and nothing at the back. I really double Kyrie himself would like this set up and my guess is that, just like the Kyrie PE we all saw in a different pair that Nike put a full length carbon fiber plate in his midsole.
The other thing is the mid-foot strap. The bottom line is, this thing is only for the look, and has no real use to support or lock your foot in. The problem with this is the one-piece design of the strap, instead of a desired design with a strap would goes into a loop that you can really tight things up to the max. Luckily, the speed lacing system and the material used help to solve this issue and my foot were securely locked inside the shoes.
I believe Nike put a lot of thoughts on the outsole design. You definitely can see outrigger on the side of the shoes. On top of that, if you look the shoes from the backside, you can see the outsole is wider towards the bottom. This definitely adds the stability of the outsole. This reminds me another shoes during my college playing days. I had my first pair of Nike Flight Lite and won the National Championship with it. It is the high top version with great cushioning and I loved it so much so I snagged another pair of low top. However, the low top version on foot had a totally different feeling for me. The cushioning felt hard and the outsole felt a bit unstable when I played. I kind figured it out at a later stage where the high top was made in Taiwan and low top was made in Korea. The Koran made version had the completely different outsole design where looking from the behind, the outsole is shaped smaller towards the bottom of the shoes. Of course, I was not able to look inside the midsole but my guess is that the air bubble used was probably different and the midsole materials were also different.
Going back to Kyrie 6. I bought the size 12.5 again, and it feels pretty tight when I first put it on. The cheap and plastic feel material also contributes to the overall snug feel. I was kind worried if this was going to be too tight for my liking and on court play. However, after warming up in the shoes and played a few games, I felt the fit is just great. My feet were all locked in and felt secured in the shoes. Again, even with the useless strap, I still felt this is probably one of the best fit kicks that I had put on in years.
I almost forgot to mention one thing about the outsole. The most distinctive of the Kyrie outsole design is the rounded edge, and this was marketed as a feature that would help a player’s movement on court. I am not a quick guard so I can’t really vouch if my movement is a lot better due to the design. However, the interesting thing is that I did move a lot quicker and tried to cover a lot of the zone while I played defense. Two things might have happened here 1) my condition was just a bit better last Saturday 2) the heel to toe transition of the shoes was just really good. To be honest with you, I can’t tell which one is the real reason or it would be the combination of the both. I just have to tell you how I feel since this is another thing that I don’t usually feel on other shoes.
Hope I did not leave anything behind. To sum up, this is a pair of nice surprise and with the discount you can find, it should be a pair of shoes that you should be putting into your rotation (if money is not the issue here ).