Nike Kyrie 7 REVIEW – Lost Kyrie-ness

 One of the most worn basketball shoe lines just got updated.

The Nike Kyrie 7 performance review is ready for you to digest.

Let’s get it!

MATERIALS

Compared to the last year’s model, Nike went discount shopping with the Kyrie 7 when it comes to material usage for the upper. It’s a full-length mesh tooling, exactly the same you can find on Kyrie’s budget line (Kyrie Low, Flytrap, or Kybrid), losing that awesome rare half made of genuine leather or suede on the 6’s.

While the in-hand experience isn’t something worth a spot on a signature shoe, the on-foot sensation was a whole lot different. That being said, a paper-thin mesh setup arranged throughout the upper body opens up for a pliable/adaptive welcoming from the get-go. Though the break-in process is still there, yet it’s a quick & unpainful one; approximately one to two days for a complete adaptation to your foot.

CUSHION

On paper, nothing has changed, but it did feel different, still. Just a notch, yet enough to feel the difference which shouldn’t impact any type of player that enjoyed the last two iterations. Unless your feet are really picky.

The Zoom Air Turbo dominance in the forefoot remains untouched. However, Nike seems like they’ve put some type of a Zoom Air Turbo limiter to keep us from a true Air experience as far as step-in comfort goes. It might have to do with a firmer\thicker caging around it or something has changed within foam itself, not really sure. Fortunately, once you hit that in a real game with real impact, that’s where the forefoot starts to work the way I’m familiar with for the past two years. So no reason to be mad. But not going to lie, the first experience really got me scared.

The rare end, on the flip side, has gone softer and more compression-friendly than ever before. Not because of extra foam or tweaked softness of it, but for added cut out (flex zone if so). So, technically, you’re getting improved impact protection from the same tooling with a slightly tuned execution. Smart smart.

 

TRACTION

The swoosh brand took the extra hassle to capture a bunch of athlete’s motions, pressure points, and other important data to come up with the computer-generated traction pattern. Well, that extra time spend was all worth it.

No matter how off you might be with your game, this traction setup is going to bring the A-game day in, and day out. Just a quick note, just like with the upper, the rubber needs a few runs to soften up and start beasting no matter where you take them.

Dust problem wasn’t ever an issue for me throughout the testing period thanks to widely & deeply spaced grooves. That also helped to obtain a better life span for outdoor usage which, I would say, is quite good.

 

FIT

If you don’t feel love for an intense one-to-one fit where your fingers are within a few head hairs away from hitting the toe box, then you surely want to go a half size up. For wide footers, you need to go a whole size up straight away. If that doesn’t work, well, just bypass them this time. Instead, I recommend taking a look at the Nike Cosmic Unity – the Kyrie x KD unofficial hybrid. Also, this year’s biggest favorite of mine thus far.

On feet, the Kyrie 7 does feel like any other Kyrie out there, except one thing I feel needs a mention… You can say, they’ve lost a touch of their DNA by getting a flatter base near the edges. Nike didn’t mellow that famous curvature of the midsole too much, though, as you can still pull up some really sharp edges. However, this won’t be as buttery smooth, and fluent as on the older generations. So it’s one of those win & loss situations.

 

SUPPORT

So the main story here floats around the absence of a torsional plate in the Kyrie 7. Nike covers that up as a move to make an already one of the lightest sneaker-producing basketball series in the game even lighter. That for sure doesn’t make any sense especially when you take away such an important piece as a torsional plate. That being said, like Nightwing and many people on Reddit, I tend to think this is just simply Nike’s way to say: “We’re cost-cutting your butts”.

Now when it comes to putting it to practice, I’m not that much of an intense shot creator who does crazy moves. So, personally, I couldn’t feel the need for better torsional rigidity. That’s why I would love to hear out ballers with different play styles if they had the issue related to this.

Apart from that, the Kyrie 8 has a standard support load-out that did a solid job for me. I even enjoyed those flaps that are connected to the lacing system more than the strap, since they contain a wider area of your feet once tied up.

 

OVERALL

In general, the Nike Kyrie 7 is a solid performer in this year’s sneaker market. But if compared to the Kyrie 6, personally, the 7 loses the fight by a few points.

There were lesser things in the Kyrie 7 that I enjoyed or liked over the past generation (Kyrie 6), than in the opposite way. That makes me want to go back and pick last year’s model whenever I want some Kyrie action on the court.

I think Nike went overboard with making the Kyrie 7 an “all men shoe” by ditching out a torsional plate as so sharping up the edges of the midsole. In other words, they’ve lost their character or Kyrie-ness if you so.

I hope to see that coming back next year, as for now, Kyrie 6 stays the best performing modern Kyrie in the line-up.