You hear
Best Jordans Shoes from business leaders all the time. From the far reaches of nearly every motivational TED Talk to attempts at intimate advice of Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and the like, it’s an almost loud echo. Some of us have heard it as more of a rallying cry for those that want to succeed. For more of us, it’s a bit tiring to hear it over and over - regardless of how true it may be: allow yourself to fail.
If you’re tuning out because you’ve misplaced your eyes as they’ve rolled right on out of your head, I understand. But, if you can, bear with me for a sec here. That horribly repetitive piece of advice, true as it may be in general, seems to ring subtly with sneakers as well. Particularly, performance basketball shoes. Reaching for certain heights that may not be necessarily safe can lead to a number of flops. But, it can also result in a few home run sell out hits. Nike’s attempts at the Kobe 4, the first high-level low top basketball sneaker is a good example of risk leading almost directly to reward. Putting Boost tech, a running cushion, in a hoops shoe is the entire reason why adidas is even relevant in that category. But, as always, there are issues.
Both of the
Jordan 4 For Sale weren’t really risks. In fact, they were more like tightly controlled experiments, the sort you don’t really finish without having an over-involved parent over your shoulder. Boost was always going to be a successful decision for adidas in terms of basketball because the original premise fit the on-court purpose. As for the Kobe 4, the shoe’s namesake alone was enough of a massive name at the time to make the low-cut “experiment” seem like no chance was taken at all.
One shoe, the Hyperdunk, did take chances. It may not occur to a lot of us, even those of us who love the Hypers, but Nike took some subtle chances with this shoe. The original version, dropped back in 2008, was a stellar addition to the hoop sneaker scene. Featherweight and with impressive support features, the Hyperdunk was a tone that the rest of industry was trying mightily to strike. So, of course, the following years saw releases that kept the shoe as close to its original form as possible. From 2009-2011, there were very minimal changes made to the Hyperdunk, resulting in some impressive consistency.
But, then came flops like the
Cheap Curry 4. As reaches go, this was a hyperextension. Perhaps looking to get ahead of the athleisure curve, this model looked spacey and contrived while essentially shredding its performance profile. On more than one count, it failed, miserably. But, there was an advantage to this. It made 2016 serve as a reminder of how brilliant this sneaker could really be. Featuring advanced Zoom all along the midsole and a Flyknit edition, it was a welcome flashback to the design philosophy that made so many fall in love with the Hypers.
Now, we have the 2017 edition. This sneaker’s features represent a piece of brilliance in the form of timing and full-circle narrative from Nike. After debuting in 2008, the Hyperdunk went through a phase of “eh, ok, I guess” for a few years, cataclysmically lost touch and fell off after that, climbed back up in quality, and is now taking on a new cushioning tech in perhaps its most advanced form.
