Nike Basketball has long been known to try some crazy concepts and ideas. The Nike Zoom HyperRev may just be so crazy it works.
Air Force 1. Air Revolution. Hyperflight. Ultraflight. Foamposite. Huarache 2K4. Kobe 1. All shoes that pushed creative boundaries. All shoes that had doubters going in and believers coming out. I know – I was there for most of them. Now Nike brings the HyperRev – maybe at first look not quite as groundbreaking as some of the above shoes but compared to the market today, completely eye-opening. A shoe with no real structure for an upper? With only Flywire for real support? Yeah, hold King Kong with kite string – ain’t gonna hold. But sometimes it seems those guys in the Swoosh kitchen have a Hardaway-type handle on things.
So let’s look at exactly what we have here. First, full length Zoom midsole. We know because it says it right there on that clear window showing the Zoom unit. Then we have a Phylite midsole housing. Phylite, you say? What is that? Lightweight foam – not exactly responsive but absorbing. Complete open mesh upper that has some of the most open cells I have seen in a basketball shoe. If you hadn’t noticed, the shoe’s body is all one piece – no tongue. It is a sock. A sock with Flywire, that wraps you tight when laced up. And the ankle strap. Aren’t ankle straps just for looks? Not here, locks up like Kentucky free throws in a tourney game. But does it all work? Now, you know who you talking to
