New Balance Kawhi IV review

Don't let the Kawhi IV sleep in your wishlist forever if you're looking for:

• A super padded and comfortable pair that also offers fantastic breathability.
• A solid shoe that provides incredibly good support and lockdown.
• A versatile hooper that offers some bounce and pretty good traction in any court.

If you have wide feet or big toes, we highly recommend letting this New Balance go. Its snug and foot-hugging structure, with all that padding and the rigid upper materials, doesn't leave much extra space for the foot. The Luka 2 and the Luka 3 are two signature shoes with great lateral support that might fit hoopers with slightly wide feet. Check them out!

Even though the Kawhi IV couldn't be considered a ballast for your foot, it definitely is on the heavier side. We didn't feel it that much during our wear tests, but if you have a quick and agile playstyle, you might as well want to have a look at our lightweight hoopers.

When we took it out of the box, we noticed this shoe's upper looked pretty solid. Before we played in it, we bet it was not going to be breathable. And boy, were we wrong!

First off, we could see the shade of our own fingers through the upper, which was already a fantastic beginning regarding ventilation. But we wanted to know more, so we asked our smoke machine about its opinion.

Wow! Look at all that smoke coming through! The Kawhi IV was easily breathing in and out, just chilling in our lab. But the Nike Book 1... someone save that poor thing from choking, its 1/5 on our breathability test didn't need any further evidence.

On the other hand, the NB pair showed a well-ventilated engineered mesh upper with some synthetic overlays. We grabbed our microscope to have a closer look at the mesh, but we had already decided that the Kawhi IV deserved a fantastic 4/5 on our breathability test.

After such a good result on our breathability test, we didn't know what to expect from the durability one. Please, Dremel, have mercy!

After 12 seconds of drilling, the tool couldn't even open up a hole in the upper.

We were pretty happy with this result, as this New Balance model uses a pretty breathable material. We could see the light shine through it, so the fact that the mesh didn't end up all meshed up (yeah, it's one of our favourite puns... we can't help it) is already really good news.

If we compare the Kawhi IV's result (left) with the Precision 6's (right) on this same test, it might be easier to understand why we feel pretty satisfied. As you can see, the latter is absolutely destroyed. The Dremel went through the multiple layers of the shoe, so we could only give it a 1/5 on our toebox durability test. Nevertheless, even though the New Balance pair got damaged, the tool didn't manage to open it all up.

Consequently, we've decided to give the Kawhi IV a 3/5 on our toebox durability test.

We moved the Dremel all the way to the back to check this shoe's heel padding durability.

The test lasted 4 seconds, and the tool was rolling at 5K RPM and with 3.2N of force. As you can see, some of the material got such in the Dremel, which made us fear the worst. Nevertheless, when we put it aside and had full access to the dent, we were once again pretty happy.

Yeah, it doesn't look good, but it doesn't look bad either! The tool didn't manage to destroy the thick heel padding completely. Consequently, we've decided to give it a 3/5 on our heel padding durability test.

The Reebok Answer DMX (on the right) wasn't as lucky. As you can see, the Dremel dug into its heel padding just like a dog looking for a bone! That's why we couldn't give it a score higher than a 1/5 on this same test.

We used our durometer to see how hard the Kawhi IV's outsole is.

At 86.0 HC, it's definitely harder than average. Just not so much as to leave traction on a secondary level and just prioritise durability, but we do believe it should be more resistant than average.

Still, our bet is that it'll most likely offer a healthy mix between grip and durability. Let's find out if we're right on the upcoming sections! Don't miss out!

Our Dremel had one last chance to prove how tough it is. This time at 10K RPM and with the same 3.2N of force, we turned on the tool for 22 seconds to check this New Balance's outsole durability.

The rubber compound resisted pretty well, and it ended up with a minimal dent of 0.8 mm. This lower-than-average result was fantastic, and we just couldn't wait to see what else the Kawhi IV had in store for us!

After verifying how durable the outsole of this New Balance pair is, we thought the brand wouldn't go for a massive piece of rubber. This would only increase the shoe's overall weight after all, and the material used is already durable enough to withstand the court's abrasion on its own!

At 5.1 mm, our calliper indicated this shoe's outsole is thicker than average, but not too much. Don't get us wrong, we do not think this is the wrong call by the brand. Nevertheless, personally, we would have gone for a thinner outsole.

You'll understand it all once we make it to the Weight section!

Here we are!

There are many things that we want to talk about in this section. But let's start with our lab data and findings.

When we put this shoe on our scale, it returned 14.4 oz/407g. It sounds like a lot, and it actually is more than average. But it's not a bulky pair at all!

The thing is that... with such weight, we should've felt it dragging our feet during our wear tests. However, it felt pretty good! Like, yeah, we definitely felt it was heavier than other hoopers we had played in, like the NB Two WXY V4 (13.05 oz/370g), but the Kawhi IV didn't make us feel tired sooner than expected.

It's definitely not the fastest shoe, though. That's for sure. But we can't say it slowed us down like crazy during our games. Despite its weight, it still felt kind of quick on our feet! Not light and nimble, but definitely in tune with our moves.

At 30.9 mm, this New Balance's heel stack is slightly higher than average.

This translated into nice impact protection during our wear test, which we appreciated a lot every time we jumped!

The forefoot stack is just average at 21.8 mm, according to our calliper.

Even though this area is closer to the ground than the heel, we still didn't feel the court under the ball of our foot. As the Kawhi IV focuses more on protecting our landings from the harsh surface, it keeps a foamy barrier between the feet and the floor.

A drop of 9.1 mm is something we don't see every day on a basketball shoe!

As you can see in this picture the heel is a bit taller than the forefoot. But wait, now that we can clearly see the interior of the Kawhi IV, let's talk about its foam.

It features a dual-density FuelCell midsole that feels comfortable and soft underfoot. Additionally, there's a long shank in the midfoot (the black, thin piece you can see between the red and the white foams) that offers some extra support and bounce.

We can't say this New Balance is the most explosive or responsive shoe out there, but we could enjoy a little bit of spring in every move that helped us get one step closer to our top performance.

As we've just mentioned, the Kawhi IV features a dual-density midsole. Consequently, we stuck our durometer in both the white and the red foam (in this colorway), but we got very similar results.

The white material scored 15.0 HA, which is way softer than average. This explains why we felt the Kawhi IV super plush underfoot. And overall, honestly! Just look at how padded this shoe is... its comfort levels are over 9000!

On the other hand, the red foam got a reading of 17.0 HA. It's pretty common on dual-density designs that a firmer foam is closer to the ground, protecting the feet, and a softer one is right next to the foot, offering some extra comfort.

Basically, that was our ride with the Kawhi IV: comfortable, soft, protected from impacts, and stable!

Our calliper returned 5.7 mm when we measured this shoe's insole thickness.

It's bigger than average, which just levels up the shoe's overall comfort levels. This added, to its soft foam, makes the shoe really plush and nice to play in.

The best part is that the lengthy shank didn't let us sink in, as it offered some extra energy to our steps so we could push ourselves back up in every toe-off.

When we put on this shoe to hoop for a while, we realised not only how comfortable, but also how structured it was from the very first minute.

As you can see in the video, its structure doesn't let our ankles play around much. Like a wall, it just stops it before it comes any closer to overextending itself.

We really appreciated this, as it made us feel safe in the shoe. This confidence made us play better, as we felt ready to go for more aggressive or powerful moves!

As we expected, bending and twisting the Kawhi IV was pretty much impossible!

Our fingers struggled a lot, yet the structure of this New Balance pair didn't give in! This is most likely because of the extended rubberized walls it features on the sides. They made this shoe feel incredibly supportive to us, and they also added some extra durability acting as protective layers.

For toe-draggers like us, these protective elements are life-saving!

Anyway, after trying this shoe in our lab and out, playing some basketball games in it, we've decided to give it a perfect 5/5 on our torsional rigidity test.

The extra padded thick counter wouldn't bow to us much either. Its sides were a little bit more agreeable, but the area of the Achilles made our fingers struggle once again. There's a TPU heel cafe after all!

Consequently, we've decided to give it a fantastic 4/5 on our heel counter stiffness test. This means that the structure wraps around the foot nicely, and it's not harsh enough to actually hurt the skin of that area. At least not in our experience!

When we measured this shoe's midsole width in the forefoot, our calliper returned 109.2 mm.

Therefore, it's narrower than average, which implies the platform where the feet land is not the biggest one out there. Still, we didn't feel unstable or anything like that.

The Kawhi IV has a snug fit that hugged our feet comfortably during our wear tests, and its lateral support made sure everything was in the right place.

For the fit and some midsole measurements, we had already guessed this New Balance wouldn't be the best for wide-foot hoopers. After our calliper measured the toebox at the widest part, we just confirmed our hypothesis.

At 96.6 mm, this shoe is narrower than average. Our standard-sized feet enjoyed a snug fit, but we can see how this might be uncomfortable for hoopers with wide feet.

We really liked how flexible this New Balance pair felt on the ball of the foot. And the best part is that it combines this pliability with a reinforced and tough structure that keeps your feet right where they should be!

We only needed 30.4N to bend it all the way up to 90 degrees, which is less than average! In other words, the Kawhi IV is flexible in theory and practice.

This shoe offered great traction to us. Outdoor, indoor, or dusty courts, it literally bit everything and anything.

It features a translucent and a dyed rubber compound with a linear pattern that goes in circles around the middle gap. All we had to do was clean its outsole from time to time, and it would give us solid traction.

Even the translucent part, which is sometimes accused of being less grippy, worked properly in our experience. It got the job done, and even though this compound is on the forefoot area, which is basically what you rely on when you need to stop in the blink of an eye or change directions in basketball, it bit the courts with no problems.

For the fit and some midsole measurements, we had already guessed this New Balance wouldn't be the best for wide-foot hoopers. After our calliper measured the toebox at the widest part, we just confirmed our hypothesis.

At 96.6 mm, this shoe is narrower than average. Our standard-sized feet enjoyed a snug fit, but we can see how this might be uncomfortable for hoopers with wide feet.

Our calliper returned 77.9 mm when we measured the toebox width at the big toe.

Even though it has more of a rounder shape at the tip of the shoe, which gave our toes some extra space to spread a bit during our wear tests, we still maintain our opinion of the Kawhi IV not being the best hooper for people with big toes!

A two-sided semi-gusseted tongue was the cherry on top for this hooper's wonderful foot containment and lockdown feel!

Also, even though the eyelets might look a little bit fragile, their structure is reinforced inside, which we really appreciated! The only drawback here is that we would have appreciated an extra eyelet at the top for the shoe to fully embrace our ankles.

Yeah, we know we say this a lot. But come on, it does make a difference! If you feel the same, we believe you should check out our lacing guide and go for a runner's knot to keep your feet tightly safe!

A super padded tongue just added more comfort to an already heaven-like shoe!

Our calliper returned 14.9 mm, which is way more than average. And even though we absolutely love the protection this brought to our instep, we think this pair might've benefited from a thinner tongue.

Yeah, this means there's no lace bite and no hot spots, and that's great! But it's already a pretty heavy shoe on the scale, so why not save some weight here?

The Kawhi IV doesn't have any kind of heel tab.

Due to all the padding, the stiff structure, and the semi-gusseted tongue, we sure would've appreciated one to put the shoe on!

Is that a removable outsole? Yes, it is! Yahoo!

As usual, this means you can use your own orthotics if needed! Just take into account that this New Balance's insole is pretty padded, so if you go for a thinner one, the comfort levels might go down.

No reflective elements around! But it's not like we felt this model needed them. It's better to play indoors after all, and there's always light in the gym.