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Performance Review Sneakers

adidas D.Rose 5 Performance Review

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Derrick Rose’ fifth signature shoe was officially launched back in July of last year, but the Chicago Bulls’ point guard has been wearing them for much longer than that. That’s part of the beauty of having your own shoe – you get to test it out months in advance.

Rose told Starting5online back in August that he has specified to adidas that he wants nothing but Boost tech in his shoes from now on.

“I told them [adidas] that from now on I want the Boost technology in all my shoes. No matter how my shoe looks in the store, I want my pair with Boost technology on it so when I’m on the court I’ll always have it on. My feet don’t never hurt whenever I have it on, and every time I put the shoe on it feel like a new shoe, so, that’s all you want as a player.”

The shoe hit retail shelves in late October and we got to test it out recently. See how it performed below and tell us your thoughts.

Cushioning/Traction

The gripe that I had with the Crazy Light Boost was it’s distinct lack of Boost anywhere other than the heel. This has been rectified in the D.Rose – the first basketball shoe to utilize full-length Boost tech. The benefits are added comfort and better energy return. And yes, you do feel the difference from the Crazy Light immediately. You still feel the Boost more in your heel than in the forefoot, but that’s due to it having a thick layer in the heel unit versus a thinner spread in the forefoot area – in saying that you definitely feel it in the forefoot which is good because that means the tech is doing what it’s supposed to.

Upon first wear of the shoe the Boost feels a little firm, but after repeated use it does start to ‘break-in’ and the responsiveness is certainly there.The only thing between your foot and the Boost is an extremely thin insole. Overall it’s a very pleasant ride.

As far as impact protection this is clearly the best it’s ever been in a D. Rose shoe – and possibly in any of adidas Basketball’s range over the years.

The traction worked really, really well. The outsole of the D Rose 5  is broken down into three different components for the heel, mid, and forefoot. The translucent sections in the mid and heel section feature a distinct pattern that forms small squares, it had me worried that the grip would not be sufficient, but it worked extremely well and it felt like your foot was sticking to the floor.

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Derrick Rose talks about the sneaker’s traction at the launch in Chicago

 

Support/Lockdown

The D. Rose fits true-to-size, although a lot of different people have expressed varying opinions on this. Your best bet is to try these on to be certain, but my particular pair was my regular size. The majority of the D. Rose 5 colorways feature synthetic materials – not much break-in time is needed for these, and the material is durable, although, you will notice considerable creasing even after the first use.

(This won’t affect performance, however)

Lockdown is not an issue, either. There’s a TPU X-Bar for torsional support and a TPU heel counter for containment. Your foot feels secure at all times, thanks in part to the ankle collar which is designed to angle downward in the heel to provide better ankle mobility and better lockdown in that area.

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Ventilation

The ventilation on the D. Rose 5 is much better than the Crazy Light Boost. Perforations are found all over the shoe’s upper. Even after playing in them for hours at a time you don’t get that ‘wet sock’ feeling.

SprintWeb is primarily used as the underlay to the synthetic upper on the D.Rose and, honestly, you pretty much can’t go wrong with that.

 

Overall Recommendation

I liked this shoe a lot. I would definitely recommend this to hoopers. For me it was so much better to play in than the Crazy Light Boost, and adidas have done very well incorporating full-length Boost into a basketball shoe. Not only is this the best performing D. Rose shoe to date, it’s also the most aesthetically pleasing of his signature line so far.

 

*D. Rose 5 provided by @adidashoops

 

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