u/ANORXIC51

*Disclaimer: 44 yr old (5’10” @184 lbs) trucker that basically just shoots around for a couple of hours in the middle of the night/wee hours of morning a couple times a week after work to help not get even more out of shape. Not anywhere close to the pinnacle of casual hoopers, lol.

Recently did a reglue on one of my pairs of 2007 LBJ 4’s, and noticed the Zoom unit inside the midsoles were popped/deflated. I had bought a pair of drop-in midsoles from Serious Player Only that I was eventually going to try out in the IVs, just took a while to get around to actually doing the reglue and test my handiwork before swapping.

Main thing that initially concerned me was that the aftermarket SPOs obviously don’t have the flex grooves/cut channels like the stock midsoles have (which mimic the outsole flex points), but for this first try it didn’t really seem to be too much a hindrance to solo shootaround with some random drills thrown in. Not sure it’s worth attempting to modify them to improve mobility. Feet didn’t feel sore or tired after 2 hrs. Real test will be if I happen to bring them during daytime hours on my off days and play pickup or 21.

Shoes themselves are still heavy as cinderblocks, but now they’re even more comfortable and bouncy underfoot than I remember them being with the stock functional Zoom midsoles. SPO Explosives are plush, but still very responsive. Kind of makes me want to replace some of the Air and Zoom units in some of my other ‘90s-‘00s era stuff with boom foam when the time comes for replacements & reglues.

Break-in of the new-to-me David Stern-era Spalding is coming along nicely.

Picked up a pair of ‘98 Zoom T-Bug Flights that I’d been on the hunt for on-off for years. Deadstock and in perfect condition, but obviously the nearly 30 yr old glue only gave me 20 min of light shootaround, plus the Zoom up front and Air unit out back were understandably crumbled. Upper materials are still as structurally strong as brand new and the traction/grip on the outsoles is still unbelievably great. One of the lightest shoes in my full rotation (mostly ‘90s thru 2010 era stuff…only a handful of modern signatures, so the bar isn’t too high for lightweight stuff, lol).

Everything I have is for on court only at this point in time, so I’m not interested in going the casual street wear restore route by just replacing the dead air units with EVA foam.

I’m trying to decide between doing a separate forefoot & rear Zoom setup with EVA foam as the filler….or converting them to full Zoom Air. Unfortunately no one makes replacement segmented forefoot Zoom units like what came in these from the factory.

The full units would need me to carve out a little bit more of the midsole towards the toes, whereas just doing the separate units means I’d only need to cut/trim the EVA foam sheets as filler for the midfoot/arch section.

Which setup would you personally pick?

‘98 Nike Air Zoom T-Bug Flight

‘13 Reebok Shaqnosis

‘19 Nike Flightposite 2

‘96 Fila Muscle Ball

‘25 Converse Shai 001

‘04 adidas Garnett 1

Working on putting biases aside and went against one of my 2 main rules for buying basketball shoes (#2: Never buy a signature of someone I didn’t/don’t root for). Finally bit the bullet and picked up a pair of the Shai 001, mainly because these look like something I would’ve begged my grandma for in the mid-late ‘90s.

For reference: I’m just a 44 yr old (5’10” @ 185lb) overnight trucker that is a lifetime casual hooper. 95% of my on-court time is in various ‘90s-00 era shoes with modern/aftermarket insoles.

Cushioning: I knew going in that these were going to be kind of like my WhyNot .6 (Zoom Air up front w/foam rear & subpar insoles), so I swapped out the trash Converse/Nike stock insole for the Move Game Day. We’ll see how my knees/back feel about it after I get up from bed when I have to get ready for work later this afternoon. May try to see how these respond to my cheat code of throwing in the Zoom Air insoles from my Flightposites for my next outing in them, because the response/“springiness” itself is pretty underwhelming for having a Zoom unit (albeit small) in there.

Traction: I’m extremely spoiled with our YMCA’s clean hardwood floor (most of the time…winter can be hit or miss week-to-week). Great bite, good ability to grip for changes of direction, stop on a dime for pull-ups. I may have wiped the soles a handful of times in ~2 hrs.

Lockdown/stability: I’m NOT a lows guy. Out of the 60+ shoes on the rotation wall, maybe 7-8 of them are low tops (and that’s me throwing the AJ XIV & Zoom GP into that group). Lacing setup feels like it actually pulls my foot into the footbed. Heel cup is pronounced enough where the rear off my foot feels locked in (I didn’t notice any shifting or lifting). Not sure how I feel about the notched tongue, yet. Comfort & mobility-wise I like it. Zippered shroud seems to really compress the upper around the midfoot, which I like. Forefoot footprint isn’t as wide as I’d like it to be, but I didn’t notice any real rollover in any of the movements I was doing. We’ll see once I bring them for pickup games. No real hotspots or irritation points. Foot shape seems to agree with the shoe.

Breathability: ‘90s era ventilation. This is what I’ve been used to for close to 30 yrs. Bring an extra pair of socks if you’re actually using these for pickup games, because my socks were noticeably….moist…after not even 2 hrs of solo shootaround, lol. I never play with shoe zippers open, so I can’t comment on if that helps or not.

Overall, they’re….ok. Like I said, we’ll see what swapping in the Flightposite’s Zoom Air insoles does for these. Shouldn’t raise the internal height too much to risk turning them into a rollover machine.

Just a lifelong casual hooper in my mid-40’s that tries to get to the gym 2-3 times a week for pickup games & 1v1, but unfortunately most of my court time nowadays is just solo shootarounds due to my overnight trucker work schedule (LOTS of 1-5am shootaround time thanks to early nights and 24/7 access to the local YMCA).

Only 2 I haven’t had a chance to play in yet are the Converse Shai 001 and adidas Garnett 1. Will try to get some hours in both this week (work load depending).

Will list them from top-bottom working left-right.

1. Nike Air More Uptempo

2. Nike Zoom LeBron IV

3. Nike Air Pippen 1

4. Nike Air Zoom Flight ‘96

5. Nike Air Penny 2

6. Reebok Blast

7. Nike Air Max CW (renamed “Max Sensation”)

8. Fila Grant Hill 3

9. Nike LeBron 21 ‘Prime 96)

10. Nike Air Zoom GT Jump 2

11. adidas Garnett 1

12. Nike Air Shake Ndestrukt

13. Nike Shox VC1

14. Nike Air Garnett 3 (renamed “3 LE”)

15. Fila Stack 2

16. Nike Zoom LeBron 20-5-5

17. adidas EQT Elevation

18. adidas TMac 2

19. Nike Air Zoom GP

20. adidas AE1

21. Nike Air Flightposite 2

22. Nike Zoom Flight ‘95

23. Reebok Question

24. Nike Air Jordan XIV

25. adidas Gil Zero/Agent Zero

26. Nike Air More Money

27. Nike Air Jordan 34

28. Fila Stackhouse

29. Nike Air Jordan XI

30. Nike Air Foamposite One

31. Nike Air Pippen 2

32. Nike Air Zoom T-Bug Flight

33. Fila Muscle Ball

34. Converse Shai 001

35. Nike Air Bakin’

36. adidas The Kobe (renamed “Crazy 1”)

37. Reebok Kamikaze II

38. Nike Air Flightposite

39. Nike Air Zoom Hawk Flight

40. Reebok Rail

41. Nike KD17

42. Reebok Shaqnosis

43. Nike Shox BB4

44. Fila Grant Hill 2

45. Nike Air Jordan XII

46. And 1 Tai Chi

47. Adidas TMac 1

48. Nike Air Max Penny 1

49. Fila Grant Hill

50. Nike Air Max Uptempo ‘95

51. adidas Harden Vol.9

52. Nike Air Jordan XIII

53. Nike Air Zoom Flight V

54. Nike Zoom Hyperflight

55. Nike Air Zoom Flight ‘98 “The Glove”

56. Nike Total Air Foamposite Max

57. Reebok Answer DMX-10

58. Nike Air Jordan XV

59. adidas Kobe 1 (renamed “Crazy 8”)

60. adidas AdiZero Rose 1

61. Nike/Jordan WhyNot .6

If you have a question or are curious about a certain pair, I’ll try my best to respond when I can with my thoughts!