The Air Zoom Generation 'Court Purple' Was One of the Best PEs. Now They're Releasing To the Public.
In 2018 LeBron James appeared at a Los Angeles Lakers Summer League Game to support his new team. For sneakerheads however, we didn't care too much about a Summer League game, it was the player exclusives that he was wearing on feet that had us excited. The Air Zoom Generation 'Court Purple' was one of the most sought after Player Exclusives and after five years of leaving us hanging, the general public will finally now have a chance to get their hands on these on June 21st for $190 on SNKRS.
Colorway (3/5):
All purple sneakers are more of a fantasy than reality to me. As someone that usually wears more subtle colors I just don’t know how best to wear them. It takes someone smooth, suave and cool to pull off purple shoes well and I am not smooth, suave nor cool. In a vacuum removing my own personal hiccups with all purple sneakers, the colorway is gorgeous. It looks so sleek and paired with the icy translucent outsoles, it really looks remarkable.
Material (4/5):
This shoe consists of nubuck and suede, the middle of the shoe features nubuck leather and the quality is nice. Up close you can see the grain of the nubuck leather and it is soft and doesn’t have that fuzzy nubuck feeling the Air Jordan 4 Thunder had. The suede on the toe box is a tougher and more rough suede. I don’t mind that too much as it’s still genuine suede, however, the suede on the mid panel is different. It has a more synthetic feeling to it with slightly longer hair and I do not love that. I’m not sure why Nike needs to use two different types of suede on the same shoe, but there are many things Nike does that I can’t make sense of.
The midsole is phylon, which is essentially Nike’s EVA foam which is more lightweight and provides better cushioning than rubber or polyurethane. This shoe does have a Zoom Air unit in the forefoot and an encapsulated Air unit in the heel so the cushioning is very nice, and likely still holds up today performance wise. Not to mention my favorite - a carbon fiber shank plate. Love everything about this midsole and outsole.
The best thing about this shoe is the ‘Sphere’ material that’s used inside the shoe and around the ankle collar. You’ll see dimples on this material and that’s used to keep your feet away from the material which improves airflow and ventilation. It’s clear Nike paid special attention to ventilation on this shoe as you’ll see a mesh ‘cutout’ on the midfoot also.
Another very distinct feature of this shoe is the faux chrome strip on the heel counter. That’s supposed to provide stability, however, I think the TPU heel counter itself contributes more to stability than the chrome strip. With that said it is still a cool look and adds to the sleekness of the shoe.
Size and Comfort (5/5):
I am a size 9.5 true to size, despite my wide feet I stayed true to size on this shoe and this shoe is one of the most comfortable shoes I have in my rotation. It wraps perfectly around my feet (rumor has it LeBron has wide and flat feet like mine) and fits as snug as I want it to. The Sphere material feels great and the heel counter does it’s job as my feet feels locked in place.
The cushioning feels awesome, owing to the phylon midsole and the combination of Zoom Air and Nike Air, just the right amount of firmness and cushioning I prefer.
Versatility (2/5):
The Zoom Generation is still a relatively basketball-centric looking sneaker, and to be honest we haven’t seen a signature basketball sneaker cross over into the mainstream since Jordan Brand. Kobe’s line came close but never reached the point where casual non-basketball-caring-citizens would wear the shoe.
In addition, the all-purple aesthetic is not everyone’s cup of tea. It is a very loud shoe even though it is gorgeous, not everyone can or even would attempt to pull this off.
Storytelling (1/5):
Apart from the fact this is was originally a LeBron player exclusive, there’s not much of a story to tell here.
Laces and Box:
This shoe doesn’t come with extra laces, perhaps white laces would make this shoe pop (there goes that phrase again), but I do think the intent of this shoe is to make it as simple and purple as possible. The box of the shoe is disappointing, just a very standard Nike box. You’d think with such a sought after player exclusive Nike would do something a little more unique. But no, that would make too much sense.