Nike Ja 2 review

Don't let the Ja 2 get past you if:

• You have a quick playstyle, so you want a fast shoe with great traction and court feel.
• You're looking for something lightweight and even a bit bouncy (Zoom unit) to create openings and move the ball around.
• You're done with break-in periods and painful rubbing.

Even though we do find this hooper slightly better than its previous version, Nike still hasn't fixed the cheap-feeling materials that we saw in the Ja 1. We do believe there's been a general upgrade, but it's just not the same as wearing other Nike models. Although the Freak 6 or the Immortality 4 are not the most premium pairs out there, these two signature shoes from Giannis are quite solid and still really affordable.

Despite its wonderful traction, the Ja 2 is not ready for the harshness of outdoor courts. We believe its wonderful pattern would lose its grippy nature as soon as it wears down. But don't worry, we have reviewed multiple shoes that you can use to happily play streetball.

Just by having a look at the Ja 2, anyone can guess it's definitely not a tall hooper. Our caliper returned 26.1 mm, which is fairly lower than average. Still, we never felt like we lacked support underfoot, and we were welcomed by a nice ground feel every time we played.

Contrary to what we expected, this Nike pair has a taller forefoot stack. At 22.2 mm, its height is increased by an Air Zoom unit at the ball of the foot that provided some bounce. During our wear tests, we really appreciated this technology every time we went for a layup, as it pushed us back up after every step!

With such a similar score on both the rear and forefoot stacks according to our caliper, the Ja 2's drop couldn't be any higher than this. Don't worry, because even at 3.9 mm, this shoe doesn't feel completely flat. In fact, we really enjoyed the court feel it offered during our playtests.

Now that we can clearly see the midsole components, apart from the Air Zoom technology you see at the forefoot, the black line in the midfoot is what we call shank. This piece offers some extra stability and support, as well as some snap to the ride.

Our durometer returned 33.5 HA when we checked its midsole softness. Being lower and harder than average, you shouldn't expect the Ja 2 to feel like a couple of clouds underfoot. 

We don't think this pair focuses that much on impact protection but, honestly, that's not what we wanted from it either! Its design is clearly not oriented in that direction.

The Ja 2 features a very standard insole that, according to our caliper, is 4.2 mm thick. It's pretty much what we expected, as the brand wouldn't go for a thicker piece in a shoe where you're supposed to feel the court under your feet.

After thoroughly brainstorming and investigating multiple ideas here in RunRepeat, we decided to create a special gel in order to measure the toebox dimensions of the shoes we buy. We pour it into every pair and then let it freeze so our calipers can provide us with more precise measurements.

In this case, the Ja 2 scored 90.7 mm when we measured the widest part of its toebox. This result is lower than average, but just by looking at it you most likely guessed it wasn't going to be a roomy shoe.

The good news is that this Nike hooper doesn't taper like crazy. Our caliper returned 70.5 mm when we measured its toebox width at the big toe, which is higher than average. We can't say our standard-width feet had plenty of space to move around, but we can't complain either!

We were pretty surprised when our caliper returned 27.4 mm. To be honest, the toebox height of the Ja 2 actually surpassed our expectations.

But the best part is that this shoe features a stretchy mesh on the toe area that let us push it all the way up. Even though this hooper provides more of a snug fit overall, we could lift our toes easily and never felt like the upper material was pushing them down.

During our wear tests, we never felt like we'd lose our balance whilst wearing this Nike pair. Even though it doesn't feature crazy high lateral walls or rubberized stability components, our feet felt safe and sound!

Just like with pretty much every hooper, twisting the Ja 2 was challenging to say the least. Even though it was not so much of a brick in comparison to other shoes, our fingers struggled just enough for us to give it a 4/5 on our torsional rigidity test.

The heel follows the same logic, and if it wasn't for the sides, which complied a little bit more, we would have given this Nike pair the highest score on our heel counter stiffness test. But ah well, it got a 4/5, which is not bad at all! Following our experience wearing it, you can forget about any kind of heel slippage too.

The Ja 2 doesn't have the widest midsole. At only 111.2 mm, our caliper confirmed its width at the forefoot isn't really close to the average. Even though our standard-sized feet didn't feel they needed a wider landing base, we usually appreciate them when we jump constantly. That being said, we also think the design of this pair is more suited for quick players, and the fewer materials, the faster a shoe usually is!

Our caliper returned 87.4 mm when we measured the midsole width at the heel, which is also lower than average. Even so, we didn't feel the Ja 2 lacked stability during our wear tests.

Honestly, we thought that bending this Nike pair all the way up to 90 degrees would be easier! Our tread gauge marked 41.3N, which means it needs more force than the average of its category.

Even though we know every case and every foot is different, we need to say that, personally, we didn't have to deal with any kind of break-in period. To us, the Ja 2 was comfortable from the very first time we put it on, and even though some warm-up is always needed, it wasn't a painful experience at all.

This Nike hooper felt pretty speedy on foot. In fact, we could run up and down the court easily, and dribbling workouts were just a piece of cake. Our scale confirmed it in the lab when it returned 11.85 oz/336g, which means this shoe is way lighter than average. Personally, we believe this is just one more fact that screams why the Ja 2 is built for players with a quick footwork.

Even if we played for hours, we never felt like the Ja 2 would let our feet drown in their own sweat. To know more about this, we took this shoe to our lab and performed our light test.

The LED could only shine through the toebox, which is pretty much what we expected. To see if there were any other areas that would let the air come in and out, we turned on our smoke machine.

Thanks to our comparative breathability video, we can see how the Ja 2 has improved its ventilation skills in contrast with the Ja 1. As you can see, the later lets the smoke out through its tongue, yet the newest model focuses on offering a well-ventilated toebox.

Despite having a multilayered design, this Nike pair let the air flow pretty easily. Consequently, we've decided to give it a solid 4/5 on breathability, surpassing the score of its previous iteration on this very same test.

Our Dremel test looked really, really bad. As you can see in the video, the tool ate up the mesh as if it hadn't had breakfast, yet this shoe features so many layers that somehow... it withstood the damage! After such a brave performance, we decided to give it a 3/5 on durability.

The thickly padded heel suffered the same torture. At 5K RPM and with 2N of force, the tool couldn't really do much to destroy the back of the Ja 2. As this area also fought back pretty well, we decided to give it another 3/5 on durability.

When we measured this shoe's outsole hardness, our durometer returned 79.5 HC. This score is pretty much average, just slightly lower, so the rubber used at the bottom of the Ja 2 might focus a little bit more on grip than on durability.

Our Dremel came back for a 3rd round, but this time at 10K RPM and with the same 2N of force. After drilling the rubber for a solid 18 seconds, the shoe ended up with a 1.1 mm deep dent, which is just the average.

When we cut the shoe in half and had full unobstructed access to its outsole, we grabbed our caliper one more time. It marked 3.5 mm, which is slightly lower than average. If we take this and the previous outsole durability score into account, personally we wouldn't recommend the Ja 2 to play streetball.

This Nike pair features a tractor-inspired multidirectional pattern. It's not something we see often, but let us tell you... it worked wonders! It bit the floor easily, and we never felt like we needed some more grip when we dribbled or when we went for explosive cuts (like backdoor ones, for example).

The Ja 2 is out at the same price the Ja 1 was, which is something we're really happy about. To be fair, we didn't really see an improvement regarding the cheap-feeling of its materials, but... we can't complain. Seriously, this shoe gave us what it had to give us, and it showed a pretty good performance. It's definitely a solid hooper so, in our opinion, it's fairly priced.

The reflective elements this Nike pair features at the back look incredibly cool. Even though we believe you should not wear it to play outdoors (and indoor gyms should always have proper lighting), it's such a charming detail that we had to mention it yes or yes.

We loved how this hooper's tongue is padded right where it should be. At the top, its plushness goes up to 9.2 mm, which is pretty much average. That's exactly where we press our laces to tie the shoe, so this pillow protected us from any kind of lace bite.

The rest of the tongue is quite slim, pretty much just like the whole upper. In order to keep its weight low, the Ja 2 doesn't have extra padding where it doesn't need it.

We can't say the Ja 2 offers the best support ever, but its upper and lace system managed to make it warp around our feet comfortably. The fact that it features a fully gusseted tongue helps a lot, and it's a huge change in comparison to the Ja 1 (for the better, clearly).

This Nike pair was a little bit hard to put on because of its structure, yet the brand decided that was our problem... and didn't add any kind of heel tab at the back. But by adding it, the designers would've had to remove the "12 AM" detail, which is a reference to Morant's midnight training sessions. And we really, really like it!

This shoe features a removable insole, so don't worry if you want to change the Ja 2's insole and use your own orthotic.