If you love playing basketball, you know what a pair of excellent shoes can do for you and your sporting experience. Many basketball sneakers can serve you well. But you want the best. Let’s see what the Nike Lebron 17 EP has to offer. For one, you need sufficient traction.
Traction
The traction doesn’t look bad or feel bad, it speaks to its rubbery texture, but I never get reliable protection when playing in the shoe.
Some plays are good, others make me slip. It doesn’t matter which court I play on. Whether it was the best platform or my local 24-hour fitness, I was not comfortable doing any movement in the shoe. Unfortunately, I think traction is the foundation of a shoe. The rest of the whole structure might be awesome, in this case, it would be, but without a solid foundation on the foot, the rest is not needed.
What could go wrong? We are not sure. We think that someone a little heavier might bite a little more out of traction. This is just speculation, but this is one of my initial thoughts. However, I am leaning heavily because this may be a premature mattress implementation.
There is a split between the two anterior zoom air units and the foam mitzvah is very smooth. When maneuvering on the court, sometimes the two pieces feel like they are splitting and I do not see the coverage when my foot is fully planted.
Besides, we have no idea what the problem is. Our thoughts are only on why we might have problems. However, without the uniform traction, we would not be itching to get the LeBron 17 back on the court in no time.
Cushion
If the maximum cushion is what you are after, the LeBron 17 should make you very happy.
You feel like you are running in the air. Vulnerability protection maybe some of the best. You do not feel the impact of your foot touching the ground. The pre-zoom air, rear air max, and soft Pylon Midsole all absorb everything before you get a chance to reach your knees.
On the other hand, there is no sense of court. You feel like you are on a stage. It’s almost like you’re hovering over a hard tree. Some people may like this feeling very much, I do not hate it, but this is not my favorite system.
Surprisingly there are triggers on the front side zoom air unit and the rear air max unit. They’re not big, but they do the job basically to help keep you stable when you float in the air.
Again, not the system we wanted, but I would lie if I did not say that they are very convenient. I like to sit a little closer to the floor; otherwise, I prefer shoes that feel like you. Air Jordan 34 is one of the best systems for that. The maximum cushion system does not feel like you are running on a hovercraft.
Nike has been selling products as Knitfosite, but I think they should have called it Battle nit 3.0. I feel that the names are just semantic, but it is better not to confuse your consumers by using the word posite which is similar to Nike’s phoposite material.
Knitted “bosite” sections are just TPU or glue injected threads. At this point, we saw this in basketball shoes from almost every brand. Renaming it to sound smart and fresh is deceptive. However, it works as advertised, which is the most important thing.
Clean knit
The clean knit sections feel and play like the shoe you have had for years. It has a broken feel on the outside of the box and looks great every time you put them on. This is where the “positive” categories come in handy. The sturdy sections of the braid provide great control and support throughout the top. From heels to forearms – there are strategic support pieces throughout.
While the cushion is one of the unique features of the Nike LeBron 17, I feel that the best feature of the shoe is the miaphysite material.
Size
The Nike LeBron 17 fits the size and is reminiscent of one of my favorite LeBron models to date – the Nike LeBron 8.
They run the shoe a little shorter, something I do not care about or I have no problem with the knit structure being soft on the forefoot, so I still recommend trying on store shoes to make sure they fit the way you like before buying a pair online.
Locking is something I enjoyed a little bit. If I keep them up all the way or leave the upper eyelid alone for some extra level of movement – the locking is almost perfect. I say that almost because I am not saying that there is no real way to measure what is “perfect”. The right one for me might suck for you, but for me, the fit and locking were fantastic.
From triggers to configuration, support was not what I expected.
After LeBron 15, I was hesitant to play in some of these high-sitting shoes. However, the LeBron 16 and now the LeBron 17 show that brands can make maximum cushioning settings while providing a little more stability and support. You do not get the same level of consistency in LeBron 17 as in Curry 6 or D.O.N. Release 1, but that’s enough.
The top is nice and supportive in all the right areas, so when you combine everything, you get a nice rounded shoe that excels in the mattress field.
Final Thoughts
Overall, we enjoyed the Nike LeBron 17 from the cushion. We don’t want to play in them any more than the traction makes me feel. We hope this does not apply to everyone, and we hope there are people out there who will get big traction if they happen to buy shoes. All we know is that we played in two different pairs in two different colorways and got identical results in both. We loved everything, loved some things, but didn’t like a drag.
So, if you want a decent pair of shoes for your basketball games and practice, you have them here. This pair of sneakers won’t let you down.
Wanna check out more kicks reviews? Check out this run down here.
