adidas Dame 4 Performance Review | AnotherPair
To my lovely Dame 4s: you have showed me so much about what a true performer means. I want to thank you for the bomb hoop sessions you allowed me to experience while rocking you on the court.
Halloween is near, and with an outsole that resembles the face of the infamous Freddy Kruger, I have no choice but to refer to the outsole as “Freddy Kruger face traction pattern.”
As weird as this outsole may look, the performance is insane. This design gripped all court surfaces really well. Obviously, on clean courts the traction did what it’s supposed to do: grip.
On dirty courts the little blades on the outsole are like knifes. They cut through the dust like butter, and pushed it away through the channels that create a little runway for the dust.
The shoe will require some wiping, but not much of it. Most of the wiping is going to happen during the break-in period. Once the traction is scuffed up a bit be prepared for dopeness.
As far as the outdoors go, I have no idea — it’s cold outside and I’m not so dedicated to be out there hooping freezing my family jewels off, sorry guys. I mean the rubber is soft, so my guess is don’t do it.
Daaamnnn. adidas is back at it again with the Bounce cushioning. This year the bounce setup is super low to the ground, especially in the forefoot.
This setup is one of the best low profile setups I have ever experienced. You can really feel the court underneath your foot, and I ain’t talking about the Kyrie 3 court feel. I’m talking about Bounce cushioning court feel. The Bounce isn’t as bouncy as what we are use to, but it does provide more cushion than something like the Kyrie 3.
The Dame 4 features a super ventilated open mesh upper that has air flow from god. I’m talk wind god, I’m talk easy breezy beautiful, I’m talking straight wind storm status. Disclaimer: you aren’t going feel air flowing between your toes. However, your feet will be pretty much dry after a couple of hours hooping.
Throughout the mesh are black strands that give the mesh some structure. The mesh requires little to no break-in time and is durable yet soft enough to wrap around my foot. Anything I did the materials were right there with me. No pinching, binding, nothing — just nicely ventilated mesh.
As for the compassion ankle collar that thing is nasty and I mean nasty in a good way. It actually compressed from the ankle to about the midfoot.
Right off the bat narrow footers I’d say go down half a size, and wide footers stay true to size. During my first hoop session in the Dame 4 the fit was terrible for me. Thin socks were mainly the cause of that. Once everything heated up and stretched out a bit the fit was so bogus I threw on my back up, the Air Jordan 32 (great shoe by the way). The next day in the Dame 4 I wore thicker Nike socks and that corrected the fit for me.
Lockdown was crazy. That compression collar already holds you in place, but the lacing system was fire. The lace cables with the red rubber coating grips the strings to the point of no return. It’s almost to hard to lace because the rubber piece doesn’t allow the strings to slide. This is also good because, once you get the shoe to where you like it, the shoe won’t need to be re-laced. This should be a standard on every kick, I’m telling you.
With the compression ankle collar, strength of the materials, and the help of the midsole containing the foot and keeping it atop the footbed, the Dame 4’s support is outstanding. That is of course if the shoe fits properly. The internal heel counter did a great job cradling my heel. I didn’t experience any kind of heel slipping — my foot was anchored down and just chillin’ on the footbed.
The Dame 4 is a blast to play in. That’s really why this review took so long to come out. I though it was just too good to be true, but nope, this bad boy is definitely true.
I was having so much fun in this kick I didn’t want to stop. If there was a category for “fun to play in” I would rate the Dame 4 Hall of Fame!
