Nike G.T. Hustle 3 review

Don't sleep on the Nike G.T. Hustle 3 and its game-changing features if you are:

• A Nike lover or a tech nerd who's constantly looking for state-of-the-art designs.
• Looking for an extra cushioned model that offers wonderful impact protection and bounce.
• Someone who appreciates great traction in any court.

Forget about this Nike pair if you like to feel the court when you play basketball. The G.T. Hustle 3 features a quite high sole that separates your feet off the ground and it felt quite elevated during our wear tests. We believe the LeBron NXXT Gen might be a great alternative, as it offers a fine balance of court feel and impact protection with a nice bounce in the forefoot.

Because of its wonderful design, the G.T. Hustle 3 is pretty expensive. Even though we believe it's worth every penny, you might want to check out more affordable hoopers. You can use the interactive filters of our page to change the price ranges and find the pair that best suits your wallet and preferences!

When our caliper returned 32.8 mm, we understood some of our feelings during our playtests.

First of all, this shoe's heel stack is higher than average. But it wasn't only our caliper that was sure of this, our feet were pretty positive too! We felt pretty high off the ground when we played in this shoe, which didn't exactly lead to complete instability, but to... some kind of unsafe feeling.

You see, the higher the platform, the more unstable one usually feels. And we can't say we felt like we were losing our balance in this pair, but if you prefer to be closer to the court, you should definitely skip it!

At 26.8 mm, the G.T. Hustle 3's forefoot stack is also higher than average.

Once again, this didn't let us feel the court under our feet. So even though we didn't have as much control over our moves, this leg-saving height made us feel incredibly comfortable. This Nike felt soft underfoot, and our feet were pretty happy in their nice bed.

Both the heel and the forefoot stacks led us to an average drop of 6.0 mm. In other words, this hooper felt natural, no surprises here. Going up and down the court and walking from one line to another was really nice, and our feet didn't have to get used to anything new.

We're going to use this wonderful picture of the G.T. Hustle 3 cut in half to talk about its wonderful details:

• It features two Zoom Air units, one at the top and one at the bottom with the shape of a horseshoe. This translated into incredibly soft landings and great energy return.
• There's a plastic top shank in the midfoot-rearfoot, which means some extra support in that area.
• The soft foam offers shock absorption and forgiving cushioning.

The only thing is that all these technologies and the high stack overall made our feet feel very high off the ground. We can't really say this shoe is unstable per se, but the lighter testers among us did feel slightly unsafe.

Please note that this is our personal opinion when we tried this shoe during our wear tests! We believe it might be more suitable for bigger and heavier players, as they might not feel unsafe in it.

When our durometer returned 29.0 HA, we were pretty surprised. This result indicates that this Nike's midsole is not as soft as the average, even if it's just for a little bit.

Still, it offered us a forgiving ride full of technologies, which meant our feet wouldn't get as tired as with other shoes. Thank you for all this comfort, Nike!

Do you remember that we mentioned a couple of times (yeah, maybe a little bit more than a couple...) how comfortable we felt in this shoe? Well, the insole and our caliper now know what that's all about!

At 8.2 mm, the G.T. Hustle 3's insole is a solid 44% thicker than average. This, added to the cushioning technologies of this model, translated into a wonderfully comfortable ride indoors and outdoors. In fact, this Nike pair would be fantastic to play streetball if its outsole was made with slightly more durable material!

It features the right design and technologies to protect the feet from tough jumps, and we loved every bit of it!

At a clean 100.0 mm, the toebox width at the widest part is pretty much average.

As you see, here we measure the upper's width, but we don't include the sole. The white part you can see under our caliper is what we call sole flare, which basically adds stability. In basketball, it also acts as a protective armor for tor dragging, keeping the upper material safe and sound from the abrasion of the court.

Our caliper returned 80.1 mm when we measured the G.T. Hustle 3's toebox width at the big toe.

Even though this is undoubtedly wider than average, after our wear tests we can't say this is the perfect shoe for wide feet. It offered a snug fit for our standard-width feet, and the knit doesn't really stretch much!

We can't say the G.T. Hustle 3 tapers like crazy, but it doesn't have a very accommodating toebox... so if you've got big toes, they might feel cramped!

The result of our lateral stability test is yet another reason why we can't say this shoe is unstable.

Just look at that! The knit upper provided great containment, limiting our moves to avoid potential injuries. In other words, the lighter testers among us did not feel super stable in this shoe, but it definitely has nothing to do with its upper.

Our fingers had such a hard time trying to bend this shoe... check it out!

As you can see, the upper didn't move easily, but the higher platform was a bit more agreeable in that aspect. That's why we decided to give the G.T. Hustle a 4/5 on our torsional rigidity test.

We found the heel of this shoe incredibly solid and supportive, so we gave it a 4/5 on our heel counter stiffness test.

As you can see, the extra padded sides bent in easily, yet the area of the Achilles tendon didn't even bow a little bit! Overall, this shoe is incredibly padded, and its upper is solid, leaving no wiggle room.

Consequently, this Nike offers a snug fit that hugged our feet comfortably during our wear tests.

At 116.5 mm, our caliper indicated this shoe's midsole width in the forefoot is slightly wider than average.

Even though we'll talk about this later on, we really liked that deep lateral groove in the outsole. We could feel it work and give some extra flexibility to our moves during our wear tests.

The midsole width in the heel is slightly narrower than average at 88.2 mm. Nevertheless, this didn't have a negative effect on the shoe's stability or anything like that!

We didn't feel it was hard to move around the court with this shoe, but we believe it needs a short break-in period to offer its full comfort.

52.6N were needed to bend it all the way to 90 degrees, which is way more than the force needed to flex the previous version (only 28.9N) in this same test! The higher platform definitely changed the game rules here.

Even though the G.T. Hustle 2 and the G.T. Hustle 3 are completely different shoes, we expected Nike to keep some of the best features of the older sibling.

Nevertheless, at 13.1 oz/370g, this hooper is 1.1 oz/30g heavier than its predecessor. It's still lighter than average, though!

But we didn't feel slow with this shoe. During our wear tests, we could run up and down the court with no problems, as our feet were not being pushed all the way back to the floor. Also, this Nike has a forefoot rocker that favors easy transitions. In other words, the G.T. Hustle 3 didn't stop us at all. Quite the contrary, we'd say!

The G.T. Hustle 3 breaks completely from the previous version, and it starts with its breathability!

We literally couldn't believe our eyes: look at all the smoke coming out of the toebox! Especially if we compare it with the Nike Book 1 and its 1/5; the poor thing wouldn't survive a hot summer even if tried.

Our light test gave it away. The knit upper lets the light shine through with no problems at all, which means the material also lets the air go in and out. That's exactly how we felt during our wear tests. Even if we wore this shoe on a hot summer afternoon, our feet still felt energized and ready to hoop some more.

Our microscope showed the tiny gaps between the threads, which explains why it was so easy for this Nike to let the smoke out.

We've decided to give the G.T. Hustle 3 a solid 5/5 in breathability. We don't need any further evidence!

After the over-the-top results we got on our breathability test, we didn't know if the upper would show great durability. You know, there are many times were well-ventilated materials end up being less resistant to abrasion. Let's hear our Dremel's opinion!

At 5K RPM and with 3.2N of force, the tool was ready to fight this Nike's knit. But... wait, what? The threads are flying around? Is the Hustle 3 actually fighting back the Dremel?

Wow, it did fight back! The upper is pretty much undamaged, so we've decided it deserves a wonderful 4/5 on our toebox durability test.

If you want to see what a lower grade on this same test looks like, check the poor Nike Precision 6 and its 1/5. Now that's rough.

Our expectations were already pretty high, but we still bore in mind that the heel is a very fragile spot in shoes. Just imagine all the friction that occurs in this area during basketball games! Jumping, rebounding, changing directions quickly... all this means a constant rubbing on the Achilles area.

Once again, this shoe left us with our mouths wide open. Just look at the minimal damage that our Dremel did to the heel padding.

You can barely see it! So we've decided to give it a splendid 4/5 on our heel padding durability test. If you want to see what a real mess looks like (a.k.a. a 1/5 on this same test), check the comparison of the G.T. Hustle 3 with the Reebok Answer DMX.

We turned this shoe upside down to measure the durability of its outsole.

Our durometer returned 84.3 HC, which means it's pretty much as hard as the average. In most cases, this means the rubber offers a great mix of durability and grip.

We asked our Dremel one last time to check the G.T. Hustle 3's durability for us, but this time we focused on the outsole.

After 22 seconds of non-stop drilling, the tool managed to leave a bite mark of 1.2 mm, which is pretty much average.

The G.T. Hustle 2 ended up with a dent of only 0.5 mm, making it more suitable to play streetball. Even though you can also play outdoors with the G.T. Hustle 3, its outsole most likely won't last as long.

Our caliper returned 4.0 mm when we measured this shoe's outsole.

It's an average result, which means that the G.T. Hustle 3 most likely focuses on keeping the weight low with its slightly harder-than-average rubber.

We really enjoyed the G.T. Hustle 3's traction, indoors and outdoors! This shoe bit the floor easily and efficiently, which gave us some extra confidence when we went for daring moves.

We already mentioned it before, but the deep lateral groove opened up with our moves, and we felt it increased the shoe's flexibility somehow. There's also the big white hole with the Swoosh in the rearfoot, which reduces the overall weight.

Look at that! It bites the court and doesn't let go until we lift our foot. Honestly, we're pretty happy with this Nike's traction, as apart from good it was also constant.

Nike decided not to add any reflective elements to this model.

We were pretty surprised yet once again, as the previous iteration does include some shiny details. Well, this works as another clear evidence of why the G.T. Hustle 3 and 2 feel like completely different shoes!

We loved this shoe's tongue padding, and at 9.0 mm, it's pretty close to average.

As you can see in the picture, there are 2 main padded areas. The one that goes over the instep, which has a thinner padding; and the one where we tend to tie our laces, which is thicker. Not only did this help reduce the G.T. Hustle 3's overall weight, it also added protection to the key areas, saving us from any kind of lace bite.

This shoe doesn't have a finger loop or any other helpful detail. Nevertheless, as it's got a non-gusseted tongue, the opening is wide enough to fit the feet with no problems.

We are not gonna lie here: for this shoe's price, we did expect a gusseted tongue.

So we were pretty surprised when we saw this Nike model had a non-gusseted tongue! It's true that this reduced the G.T. Hustle 3's weight and that it didn't have a negative effect on the shoe's overall containment, though.

We liked this pair's insole, but just in case you don't, you can always change it!

As you might already know, we're huge fans of removable insoles! You can change them for the ones of your liking or use your own orthotics, which is essential for some hoopers.