Adidas Dame 9 review

We believe you should give the Dame 9 a chance to conquer your rotation if:

• Stability, lockdown and support are your number one priorities in every hooper.
• You're constantly jumping on the court, so you need extra impact protection and a wide landing base.
• You're looking for some snap but you don't want to miss out on comfort.
• 

Even though it's not much, the Dame 9 is heavier than most hoopers. Personally, it wasn't something that made us slow down during our games, and we didn't find it ridiculously bottom-heavy either. Still, we can see why you'd rather get a quicker pair, so here you have the lightweight basketball shoes we've reviewed so far.

On another note, we're happy with this shoe's grip levels, yet we believe Adidas hasn't fixed the "dust magnet" nature of the Dame 8. But don't worry, because we have tested some cheap and expensive basketball shoes that offer great traction on dusty courts. Don't hesitate to have a look!

At 27.8 mm, this Adidas' heel stack is slightly lower than average. Still, we really liked its cushioning, as it offered great impact protection every time we jumped to get a rebound or for a shot!

The forefoot stack is also a little bit shorter than average. Our caliper returned 20.1 mm, but we never felt like this hooper lacked cushioning. In fact, we enjoyed loads of comfort during our wear tests! So, just to make it clear: comfort, impact protection and shock absorption aren't exclusive of taller midsoles.

The heel and forefoot stacks of this hooper eft us with a drop of 7.7 mm. As our guide on the topic says, the drop is the difference in height between the heel and forefoot in an athletic shoe. In this case, the result is average, which means the Dame 9 feels just like any other basketball pair. Nothing unexpected or special here!

The softer foam of the Dame 9 scored 23.6 HA when we analyzed it using our durometer. Thanks to our wear tests, we can say this Lightstrike foam feels soft underfoot.

The best part is that it got better with time, and we could enjoy its comfort and responsive ride in every single match we played.

A 4.1 mm insole was nothing unexpected. We've been seeing this slimmer orthotic in many hoopers from Adidas, so it's become the regular for us.

To measure the width of our shoes, we have developed this just as nerdy as effective technique where we create a gel mold of their toebox.

When our favourite green material goes from liquid to solid, it imitates the shape of the shoe we put it in. Then we take it out and measure it with our caliper. In the case of the Dame 9, it returned 95.4 mm, which is way higher than average. And you know what that means, right? Some extra space!

The width of this Adidas hooper at the big toe also surpasses our lab average in this category. At 71.0 mm, we had some extra space to wiggle and readjust our toes after landing from a rebound.

The thing is that this Adidas hooper sits quite low: when we measured its toebox height, our caliper marked 22.7 mm. That being said, don't expect the upper materials to give in comfortably, as they are pretty stiff overall!

Following our experience, the Dame 9 felt incredibly stable during our playtests. As you can see in the video below, our feet didn't stand a chance against this shoe. Our ankles couldn't play around or overextend themselves, as this Adidas offered wonderful containment.

As expected after our well-deserved praise on the lateral stability test, this hooper got the highest score in our torsional rigidity test (5/5). There was no way we could bend the Dame 9 with our hands, as the synthetic upper and high lateral walls just wouldn't let us.

We didn't have any heel slippage issues with this shoe during our wear tests. When we took it to our lab, we checked it by pressing the back area with our fingers and thumbs. It put up a good fight, but it was friendly enough not to hurt us when we played basketball. Consequently, we decided to give a 4/5 on our stiffness test.

The wonderful stability we felt during our wear tests wasn't just thanks to the solid upper of this hooper, but also to its incredibly spacious midsole. When we measured its width in the forefoot, our caliper returned 120.1 mm, which means it's far roomier than average. Consequently, we had loads of space to land after jump shots, rebounds, and even risky blocks!

The heel is also wider than average at 93.0 mm. Even though the gap in comparison to the standard is not as big as in the forefoot, we really appreciated this extra space.

The solid and rigid structure of this shoe is stiff both torsionally and longitudinally. In our flex test, the Dame 9 scored 43.8N, which is higher than average. This means it's harder to bend, so this hooper needed a little bit of a warm-up before it could follow our moves smoothly.

Even though this pair isn't excessively bottom heavy, it definitely doesn't belong to our lightweight hoopers category. We could kind of feel it even before taking it to our lab, but the one that confirmed it was our scale. Marking 14.71 oz/417g, in our experience the Dame 9 is a solid shoe that you can play quick with, but that won't feel and follow your moves as well as more nimble pairs.

With this solid, thick and multilayered upper, we didn't really expect the Dame 9 to be the most breathable shoe out there. In fact, our feet felt kind of sweaty if we played for hours, which already wasn't a good sign.

During our light test, the LED couldn't really shine through the upper, but somehow it managed to find some small ventilation holes through the tongue. That's exactly the point where the smoke from our smoke machine managed to get out of the shoe, too! Confirming it actually allows airflow.

That being said, there's not much for us to say about the Dame 9's breathability, as it pales in comparison to the Nike G.T. Hustle 3's. You can see it clearly in the video above, as the later lets all the smoke out easily, earning a 5/5 on our breathability test. On the other hand, we could only give the Dame 9 a sad 2/5 on ventilation.

Look at how thick that material is... there's no way the air could get in and out of the shoe freely!

The amount of layers and the solid materials of this Adidas hooper didn't play tricks on us. We expected great durability and, after our Dremel test, that's exactly what we got! At 5K RPM and with 2N of force, the tool drilled this shoe's toebox non-stop.

The results were so good that we gave it a fantastic 4/5 on our durability test, demonstrating that its upper is ready to last!

Even though the heel area of most shoes tends to be weak, this Adidas hooper showed us it's not here to play games with the Dremel once again. At 5K RPM and with the same 2N of force, the tool couldn't do much but scratch the padding, so we decided to give it another 4/5 on durability.

Our durometer marked 81.5 HC when we measured this shoe's outsole hardness. This result is pretty much average, which indicates the rubber used should offer a healthy mix of durability and traction.

This time at 10K RPM and with the same 2N of force, our Dremel drilled this shoe's outsole mercilessly. Once the 18 seconds were up, we measured the damage to check its depth. Our tread gauge returned 0.8 mm, which is lower than average. This means the Dame 9's outsole should be by your side for a while!

After seeing such a positive result on our outsole durability test, we can understand why Adidas decided not to go for an overly thick piece of rubber. In fact, our caliper returned only 3.1 mm, which is fairly lower than average. Nevertheless, we were never scared of this hooper's outsole leaving our side sooner than expected.

The Dame 9 shows off a thunder-like pattern from the back to the front. Its translucent rubber let us see the infinity plate it features, which adds some extra points on the overall high stiffness of the shoe (as well as some snap, though). There are also 2 big flex grooves: one vertical at the heel and another one horizontal right between the mid and the forefoot areas. Even though both of them increased flexibility, the break-in period of this hooper was still present.

We can't say this shoe offered a strong court feel, but its rubber kept us glued to the floor. We enjoyed its traction pretty much all the time, but if there was some dust around... game over. The Dame 9 picks it up as if it was collecting it, so we had to be wiping it constantly.

The wonderful support and stability this hooper offers was already worth its price for us. Many hoopers look for a pair with fairly good traction and a solid upper that makes sure their feet stay right where they should, and that's the Dame 9!

The fact that these hoopers have a reflective 0 at the back just makes them even cooler. We checked it in our lab with the lights off, look at that!

We believe Adidas tried its best to reduce this shoe's weight here and there. That's why our caliper returned 4.6 mm when we measured the Dame 9's tongue padding, which is way lower than average.

After all, we're already talking about a heavier hooper, so adding more than the necessary padding to make it comfortable would be detrimental. That's the logic the whole shoe follows, as the only extra plush area is the heel.

The Dame 9 has a bootie-like structure that hugged our feet comfortably and... tightly. Its snug fit might not be everyone's cup of tea, but it does feel really supportive. Also, when we were checking this structure, we realized there was an extra eyelet at the top!

In order to help us with its bootie structure and tight fit, Adidas added a practical finger loop at the back of this shoe that we could pull to put the Dame 9 on and off.

As the Dame 9 features a removable insole, you can always change it if you need or have to.