Nike LeBron 22 review

Let the LeBron XXII win your heart as much as the King himself has won ours if:

• You're looking for a shoe full of advanced details and premium technologies (Cushlon 2.0, Zoom Air, Zoom Turbo, and our beloved shank).
• You want to feel the safest on the court, so you need a hooper with wonderful traction, support, and foot containment.
• You're a bigger player, a center, or a power forward and you want a pair of shoes that understand your playstyle to bits.
• You can't stop watching LeBron edits on your phone and you missed its vibe and signature aesthetics.

If you're looking for a nimble and minimalistic pair of shoes for your quick footwork, this ain't it. When we say the LeBron XXII is a tank of a shoe, we mean it. Just like the King himself! Apart from being heavy overall, this pair has a snug fit with solid materials that offer great containment and support, and that might make you feel it's even heftier. Anyway, if that isn't your thing, here you have the lightweight basketball shoes we have reviewed so far!

The breathability of this newest LB iteration has gotten even worse. The XXI is an incredibly solid performer, and even though it keeps the legendary Kobe-like aesthetics, its score in breathability is better (3/5 compared to the 1/5 of the 22nd). Just in case that's not enough for you, we've reviewed many other hoopers that let our feet breathe just like a yoga instructor!

The Lebron XXII breaks with the Kobesque feel of the XX and the XXI to bring back the vibe of the King. Nevertheless, it keeps the lower stack of the line, as our caliper returned 27.1 mm when we measured it at the heel. Even if this doesn't reach the average, don't worry, as we believe this newest model features a top-tier cushioning that'll make you forget about its height.

The forefoot follows the same logic. At 21.3 mm, it's also lower than average. However, we never felt this hooper lacked cushioning. In fact, we're pretty happy with its set-up, as it offers great bounce and wonderful shock absorption. Pretty much what big players like LeBron need!

As both the rearfoot and toe area have pretty much the same stack height, we did our math and realized this Nike's drop is only 5.8 mm. This is neither good nor bad, as shoes' drops depend only on your personal preferences.

Regarding the midsole configuration, we can see it features 3 key elements. From the heel to the forefoot, these are:

• An Air Zoom unit that offers wonderful cushioning and support.
• A top-loaded shank that provides stability and structure.
• A Zoom Turbo unit that gave us some bounce during our wear tests.

Even though our durometer returned 30.5 HA when we pressed it against this shoe's midsole, the LeBron 22 feels plush. Its Cushlon 2.0 felt pretty nice underfoot, and with all the technologies this hooper features, the experience got even better.

We got propelled back every time we landed, which was especially convenient to us when we pivoted under the rim.

The insole of the LeBron XXII looks pretty neat, but there's nothing special to say about it. Its standard and its thickness goes up to 4.6 mm, which is just average.

In order to measure this LeBron's toebox accurately, we used our new methodology: a special RunRepeat gel that we could freeze up afterwards to obtain a replica of the hooper's interiors.

In this case, our caliper marked 91.4 mm when we measured its toebox in the widest part. So, even though the synthetic leather upper of this shoe gives in a little bit, don't expect a lot of space.

But things get even worse, as the XXII tapers... quite a bit. Forget about wiggling your toes and letting them play around. This shoe has a snug fit as it's for the support, and for the support only!

At 22.1 mm, the vertical height of this Nike doesn't really stand out either. Once again, it's a score below the average, which is what we expected after experiencing its constrictive nature during our wear tests.

Overall, the stability of this shoe is just superb. During our wear tests, we felt safe and supported, as the LeBron XXII's containment is almost unmatched. You can see it in the video below, this tank of a shoe is ready to hold your feet in place!

Twisting the LB 22? Nice joke. It's absolutely impossible! This shoe features what the brand calls a saddle. This piece covers the midfoot and some of the forefoot, adding a lot of structure and support to the shoe. Consequently, it's nearly impossible to wring it, so we've given it a 5/5 on our torsional rigidity test (and if we could give it a 50, we would have, trust us).

We tried to push the heel too, but it was impossible for our thumb. Nevertheless, the sides of the rearfoot actually gave in a little bit more, and that's literally the only reason with the LeBron 22 got a 3/5 on our heel counter stiffness test.

We believe this LeBron's landing base is wide enough for any moves performed by the center position in basketball. Be it pivoting, stepping closer to the rim, jumping for a rebound or anything on those lines, we never felt like our feet lacked room when they were back on the court again. Hence, the 115.6 mm of width this shoe's midsole has at the forefoot were just what we needed.

On the other hand, the midsole is narrower than average at the heel. Our caliper returned 85.4 mm when we measured it, and even though the wider the landing platform, the more stability, we never felt like the LeBron 22 was lacking in this aspect.

Both torsionally and longitudinally, the LeBron 22 is just really, really stubborn. This shoe acted like an armor for our feet, so of course it wouldn't be easy to mess with. During our wear tests, it needed its time to warm up to us and break-in, which we completely understood when we needed 44.1N of force in our lab to make it bend all the way up to 90 degrees.

After reading this review this far, you've probably guessed the LeBron 22 is not a lightweight shoe. Just like our feet when we first put this hooper on, its snug structure feels heavy. We do believe it's designed for big guys, just like the King himself, who usually play center and power forward and need a lot of cushioning and containment.

When we took it to the lab, our scale returned 15.56 oz/441g, which unsurprisingly surpasses the average. Seriously, when we say this is a tank of a shoe, we mean it! Its solid materials come with a price, which is this heavier structure.

After all the shoes we have tested... we don't trust perforation holes any more! We check them carefully, and the LeBron 22's flopped on our light test.

The LED just can't shine through any of them, so the air shouldn't be able to get through them easily either! In fact, when we even had to check if our smoke machine was on during this second part of our breathability test, and nothing was coming out of this Nike pair. In comparison to the Ja 2, its performance was so bad that we could only give it a sad 1/5 on breathability.

Just like we thought, this Nike's ventilation holes seem to be merely decorative, as there's a solid layer underneath that blocks air, light, and anything else that tries to get it!

The breathability of the LeBron 22 was so bad that we expected great durability. Luckily, that's what we got, as this shoe faced our Dremel bravely. At 5K RPM and with 2N of force, the tool drilled the synthetic leather upper of this hooper, yet it couldn't do much. We were pretty happy with its performance, so we decided to give it a 4/5 on our toebox durability test.

The Nike sphere lining of the heel withstood the abrasion of our Dremel pretty well too! The damage was almost non-existent, so we decided to give the LeBron 22 another solid 4/5 on durability.

At 76.5 HC, our durometer reminded us that this shoe's outsole is hard, yet not as much as the average. If we had seen this result before trying the LeBron 22 on our own feet, it would've worked as a great hint for the amazing grip we enjoyed whilst playing basketball.

Apart from wonderful traction, this hooper's outsole also demonstrated fantastic durability. Even though the Dremel went all in at 10K RPM and with the same 2N of force, the LeBron 22 fought back fiercely. Our tread gauge marked that the result dent was only 0.7 mm deep, which just confirms this pair is ready to last.

Taking into account these 2 wonderful results regarding the outsole, we believe Nike understood it didn't really need to go all out here. In other words, the brand didn't have to use more than 3.9 mm of rubber for this piece (as its durability is already great), which is just the average. And we totally agree: let's not add any unnecessary weight!

Thanks to the LeBron 22, we could enjoy top tier traction during our wear tests. It does pick up dust, but no matter where we played, we felt confident and ready to perform quick and aggressive moves.

As you can see, this shoe features a multidirectional pattern with 2 different colors. Even though it needed some time to warm up, once it was ready we enjoyed a very solid grip in every single game we played. Nevertheless, and despite its durability, we don't believe this flatter pattern would be the best choice to play streetball.

The fact that the LeBron XXII came out costing $180 was a pleasant surprise to us. There's a tendency where hoopers are getting more and more expensive nowadays, and we thought this performer would go all the way up to $200. It does have a lot of technologies and fastatic playability, so even though we can see it being a little bit too pricey for a lot of people, we also believe it's worth the investment.

This colorway doesn't have any reflective elements, but there are some others among the LeBron 22 that do! (Just watch out for a potential price increase, though).

At 9.4 mm, this hooper's tongue does feel luxurious. Never ever did we have to deal with any kind of lace bite or uncomfortable rubbing, as this plush shield protected us from it all.

The good news is that the weight of the LeBron XXII might as well come from its overall padded structure. Apart from the tongue and the heel, the upper in general also focuses on being comfortable.

Even though the LeBron 22 doesn't feature a gusseted tongue, its stiff structure didn't make it easy for us to put it on. The thing is that it doesn't have a heel tab either, so you gotta untie its laces properly before squeezing your feet into it.

And talking about laces, this colorway comes with 2 different pairs, and in this picture we're using the ones made with this towel-textured material. They looked fun so we wanted to try them out, yet we believe it's an either love it or hate it detail. Personally, we'd stick to regular laces... these aren't our cup of tea!

This Nike pair has a removable insole that you can change if you want or need to. Just remember that it's a snug shoe and its leather won't stretch like crazy (especially not the first times you wear it!), so going for an overly thick orthotic might jeopardize comfort.