Serious Player Only Player 1 Traction

The Player 1 is equipped with a solid rubber outsole with a sectioned herringbone traction pattern. The lines of the traction pattern alternate between solid lines and dotted ones made up of nubs. Now, although they use solid rubber on the outsole, it’s a very soft rubber compound, so outdoor durability is an issue.

But indoors, the traction on the Player 1 is amazing. The softness of the rubber is a positive for the shoe when playing indoors. When that rubber compresses it increases the surface area that is in contact with the court and that rubber is super grippy. On top of that, that traction pattern gives you excellent multidirectional coverage. Lastly, there are several portions of that sole that wrap around the midsole, providing extra coverage on more shifty movements. Traction is easily the shoe’s best feature and it is one of the best traction setups in recent memory.

The cushion setup in the Player 1 is very interesting. We have a drop in midsole, similar to the one we saw in the Way of Wade 808 V2, but in this case, we have a triple-density foam setup. We have an Evanlon foam carrier, which is a basic EVA foam similar to Lunarlon, and then forefoot and heel units of Serious Player Only’s Pocon and Gum foams.

The Player 1 features an upper that combines the brand’s Nervenit in the midfoot and forefoot of the shoe, and synthetic leather in the heel. Nervenit is very similar to Nike’s Flyknit in terms of aesthetics and performance though it is slightly softer to the touch.

Support on the Player 1 is on point. The shoe is equipped with a carbon fiber shank plate, a TPU cage in the heel which is very reminiscent of the Kobe 7 and Kobe 8, and has a very wide forefoot with a substantial outrigger. The shoe is very stable and, no matter what moves you throw at them, keeps your foot securely on the footbed.

The Player 1 fits true to size, so go with whatever size you usually use in other brands. The shoe does offer a nice 1 to 1 fit, so keep that in mind if you like a little extra room in your hoop shoes. One thing to keep in mind is that the Player 1 only comes with 1 lace lock. This means that the tongue of the shoe might slip down as you play. This isn’t a huge issue, Allen shows you a very easy solution to this problem in the video.

The Player 1 is a very decent on-court performance basketball shoe but somewhat of a niche model. Traction is spectacular indoors, but outdoors that soft rubber outsole won’t last long. Cushioning is also very decent but only if you like reactive hoop shoes with great court feel.