Adidas D Rose 5 Boost - Christmas Edition >> UPDATED! Sept. 29 2016 - Fit & Support
Adidas D Rose 5 Boost Performance Review:
<< CUSHIONING >> 9 / 10
BOOST BOOST BOOST!
This time, Adidas putting a full length boost foam on a basketball shoe as cushioning!
One word, "Amazing".
Unlike the CrazyLight Boost I have tried earlier, there isn't really much to critique on the performance of the boost foam cushioning system on the D Rose 5. Primarily, this time around, Adidas manages to put a full length boost on the D Rose 5 and the proper amount of boost material working together with their X-spring plate embedded between the boost foam and the bottom out-sole. Optimizing between cushioning protection for landing and the explosiveness you need for pushing off for running and jumping.
Imagine, if there are too much cushioning, it might be good for impact protection during landing but it would create a very non-responsive push off motion for acceleration and lateral movements. Vice versa, if the cushion setup is too little & rigid, you will get a responsive but bad impact protection cushion. And my experience in these were sitting right between the balance of cushion protection and responsiveness.
The cushion setup on the D Rose 5 allows you to have better than decent court feel, whether doing cuts or sprints, the cushion just feels very agile and my feet were able to feel the floor all the time.
<< TRACTION >> 9 / 10
Great traction on these, even though they are translucent outsoles and I was little skeptical about the traction pattern at first (which is a combination of wave pattern near the forefoot and square dot patterns from mid foot to heel area), but after playing in them on a mildly in-door court, they worked perfectly! No Complaints.
You can play these out door, but the rubber is on the soft side, so, if you are going to rock these out door too often, they may not last as long.
<< FIT & SUPPORT >> 8 / 10
The shoe fits true to size and provide better than average support, IF you lace them up properly (which I will explain in a bit). This time Adidas didn't put in Sprintframe (which I personally not a fan of) around the mid-sole, instead they just used a soft EVA rubber to create a frame to wrap around the entire mid-sole. The overall fitting experience feels really good with adequate support.
And here is my experience first playing in these...
The moment I put them on and laced them up as tight as I would for other shoes, it felt good at first but after 10 minutes of playing in them, both of my feet started to hurt. It was hurting near the arch area and at the ball of my toes. It was definitely not the materials not or any part of the shoe cutting into my feet; my arch and toe area were experiencing some pressure points and started to feel the pain. I thought I might have over tighten the shoes, so, I loosen up the laces a bit but then once I started running again, they were way too loose. My feet started sliding inside the shoes. I ended up have to carefully re-adjust each section of the lacing til I find the "optimal" level of tightness without having spot of pressure points to my feet and have the support that I needed.
I think the fitting of these shoes relies on proper lacing, as it works in corporation with the overall structural design of the shoe.
<< NEW UPDATE! 2016.09.29 - LACING >>
I meant to add this update here earlier this year but just never got the chance to do it until now...
Anyway, after wearing these for a few games, I notice there is a hidden layer on the tongue to allow a different way of lancing for a better fit.
Check out the new pics below and you will see what I meant, no need to say much, picture speak louder than words in this case. Simply put, the shoes feels more supportive and it feel better on the feet. And aesthetically, looks better too, IMO.
<< MATERIALS >> 8 / 10
The materials on this colorway isn't the most premium. On the surface, it has this textile material glued on a cardboard like material underneath. Yes, the overall feeling of the material does feel like a piece of cardboard but a very flexible and durable one. The materials are not really stretchable and not breathable neither.
There is a TPU ankle protection plate on each side of the ankle, which works pretty well and a standard TPU heel counter with a D Rose logo craved into it.
Regardless of the less than premium materials, the overall feeling of the materials feels great on the feet, no parts or materials are cutting into my feet while playing in these.
<< DURABILITY >> 8.5 / 10
<< AESTHETICS >> 8.5 / 10
Again, there are a dozen of colorways came out for the D Rose 5. Honestly, this grey white strip colorway isn't my most preferable colorway but it was on sales, so, I bought this pair (The one I like the most is a Red colorway with D rose logo all over the shoe, see pics).
Nevertheless, this colorway still looks cool. And it has a lot of details on the shoe, e.g. the ankle protection plate on the inner side has some inscriptions on it, on the outside it has the Adidas logo, on inner side of the tongue, it has the year 2014 printed in roman numeral with graffiti style, you can find the same year 2014 roman numeral inscription near the top of the TPU heel counter and the shoe lace has a matching strip pattern with the shoe.
<< VENTILATION >> 6.5 / 10
The ventilation is bad on this colorway. Basically, the entire shoe is completely sealed without any perforation holes or vents for air to go in/out of the shoe. The textile upper of the shoe is non-breathable material and the material is not on the thin side either. The only place where you may find some ventilation is at the tongue area, where it is made out of TechFit materials, but even so, the tongue is on the thick side.
My feet don't normally sweat much and don't get too wet after games. Playing in this pair though, I do feel my feet is warming up inside the shoes during games and my feet are wet after games.
If ventilation is an important aspect for you, getting a different colorway with better ventilation materials is the way to go.
OVERALL SCORE: 8.5/10