2018年10月15日星期一

UA Curry 3Zero II 2 Performance Analysis and Review

Beauty is only skin deep..that’s a good thing to remember about this shoe but also life in general.
Pros: traction, excellent fit, low to the ground yet balanced cushioning, fantastic stability, containment, lightweight
Cons: no heel counter so support relies almost solely on fit and stability of shoe (which is excellent), unnecessarily ugly
Sizing Advice: true to size
Best for: guards who want full range of motion yet stable shoe
Buying advice: wait for a MyFitnessPal coupon or just wait and let me know when you see someone with these on. Guaranteed to hit discounts and outlets $60 is fair (what I paid) but should push $35-45 as bottom prices
Weight 12.5 ounces which is very lightweight for a mid and one ounce lighter than the HOVR Havoc Low (review coming for those as well trying to work through some issues with them mainly heel slip)
Traction
Yes
This traction pattern is great and works well on all surfaces. Not the strongest bite but the trade off is infrequent wiping (insert poo joke)
Call me a creature of habit but I still think the Curry 5 traction is a little better due to a better bite and even less frequent wiping. However these are no slouch at all and are definitely one of the better patterns this year.
Well done UA!
Cushioning
Charged in the heel and Micro G? Sounds like a good retro UA mix and it is pretty decent but it doesn’t feel anything like Clutchfit drive 1 or older Micro G. It feels mostly like a thinned out Curry 3 but with less feedback since it rides lower (less cushioning). It rides around 20-22 mm in the forefoot like the Curry 4. If you want low to the ground but more than adequate impact protection, you’ll really like these.
It is a very well balanced combo of court feel with a touch of bounce so I think a lot of players will enjoy the set up even if it isn’t Boosty or Zoom Air like. Could UA do better? Yep they have in the past but these do a good job overall. Just wish these had a little more fun factor but you get what you pay for. For what it’s worth I like this set up much better than the Havoc so far.
Fit
True to size so simple people!!
No dead space in the forefoot at all shoe just slips on and fits like a glove or sock or whatever you want to put on your feet.
It’s essentially a one piece upper with a slightly separated tongue but hugs the foot very nicely right out of the box. This is one of the best aspects of the 3Zero II
Well done UA!
Materials
Molded maxprene upper with zonal restriction engineered from within for maximum comfort & breathability -UA
Translation: Maxprene and mesh but mostly Maxprene. Maxprene feels like a stronger less stretchy version of neoprene and is very comfortable. If you could synthetic and neoprene had a baby together you’d probably get something like this.
No issues here
Support and stability
Support relies on the fit and the stability of the the shoe because there isn’t a heel counter at all. However, stability is OUTSTANDING for a number of reasons
First off the outsole is very wide and features a modified outriggerNo tippiness in the heel and it very wide heel to toe.
It’s one of those shoes that feels like it’s split right in half to keep the lateral side down and flat no matter what you do. Other shoes that felt this stable to me include the Air Jordan 1 and Curry 2. Despite no heel counter I just felt safe playing in these.
Whatever UA did, exceptional job making these feel so stable!
Containment
Nice raised mdisole
It is more flexible than I prefer but with the synthetic upper it does a good job on hard cuts
Conclusion
I had no intention of buying the 3Zero 2 mainly because I threw up on the screen when I saw it and couldn’t hit the add to cart button. However, after a few different colorways came out and another MyFitnessPal coupon popped into my email, I was like ok for $60 I’ll give it a shot and I’m glad I did. For $100 I wouldn’t buy it and neither would the rest of the world but for $60 . Life tip: retail price is what companies wants you to pay, it isn’t the price you should pay. #crazyrichasians
If you can’t get a MFP coupon don’t fret because I can guarantee you THESE WILL SIT and go to major discounts and discount outlets. No games by Steph in the 3Zero II, no major marketing and most of all they are fugly for no reason will allow everyone to cop a shoe that does almost everything exceptionally well with traction, fit and stability being the very high highlights.
If Basketball Shoes really wants to survive in the shoe business, it really needs to work on blending looks with performance. Only 10%-20% of buyers actually buy shoes for their intended purpose so to target just this small percentage of customers is not the right strategy especially when UA basketball lives and dies by one player. I wrote this years back and sure enough the 2016 3-1 lead disappeared and UA tanked (and is still recovering but getting better..UA you should really visit my blog more often). Seriously though a few tweaks here and there would have made the 3Zero 2 much better looking without sacrificing any of the performance aspects.
And knowing how my readers think, I’ll say this ahead of time, I’d take the 3Zero2 over the Havoc all day no questions asked, no refunds, thank you come again. It does EVERYTHING better than the Havoc except maybe support but the stability of the 3Zero2 makes up for it. HOVR might be the newer cushioning but I’m comfortable saying it doesn’t feel much better than Charged especially how it’s implemented in the Havoc and it certainly doesn’t give me any additional energy return. I’m trying to work through heel slip and breaking in the cushioning more before a final assessment of the Havoc.
In the meantime these get a first team rating

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