Nike Court Vision Low review

Don't let the Nike Court Vision Low get out of your sight if you're looking for:

• A super affordable yet durable pair of trainers for your day-to-day activities.
• A breathable and comfortable pair to show off in the summer.
• A versatile shoe that looks good with pretty much every outfit.
• Kicks that never go out of style!

If you're going to be walking or standing for hours, we believe there are better shoes for that. If you're not a fan of walking pairs but you still want some fashionable Nike kicks, the Air Max collection has some comfortable shoes that are more on the affordable side. It's definitely worth checking out!

Even though the Court Vision Low has a hooper soul, we strongly (like, really, really strongly) advise you against using it to play basketball. It has no cushioning, and your feet will definitely suffer in every single landing. It also doesn't feature the required stability features to keep your joints safe. So, please, be careful!

If you want to play ball, we believe it's best for you to check out our basketball shoes collection.

Once we cut our shoes in half, we start having access to their different parts and materials. In this case, we grabbed our calliper and checked the Court Vision Low's heel stack.

The tool returned 21.1 mm, which is lower than average and, honestly, pretty much what we expected. We felt really close to the ground during our wear tests, as this Nike pair does not have a midsole!

The forefoot stack is even lower, which translated into us feeling every pebble we stepped on!

At 11.1 mm, we can't compare this minimalist pair with other trainers that feature a spongy midsole! But we're not saying this is something negative or anything, just part of its no-frills charm.

Once we have both its forefoot and heel stacks, we can calculate the drop of any shoe.

In this case, the Court Vision Low has a drop of 10.0 mm. Clean, right? Just like the whole shoe!

As you can see in the picture above, it's definitely a flat shoe. And trust us, it feels just like that in every step. Neither the absence of a midsole nor the standard insole make it uncomfortable, but in our personal experience, it might not be the best choice if you need to be walking or standing all day long!

If that's what you're looking for, then you'll most likely enjoy our walking shoes catalogue!

We've just said these Nikes feature a standard insole, remember? Well, apart from being standard, it's also thinner than average at 4.3 mm, according to our calliper.

We noticed this Nike's sleek profile from the very first time we saw it.

Our calliper returned 96.7 mm when we measured its toebox width at the widest part, which also hinted us it wouldn't be a good match for wide-foot sneakerheads!

To know it all about a shoe's toebox, we always measure it in two different parts. Why is this important? Well, think about it this way: if we measure the width of the shoe just in the widest area and get a wide score, one could assume that big-toed people would be comfortable wearing it. Nevertheless, the shoe might taper like crazy. The best example is to think about a stiletto!

In this case, the 73.4 mm width of the Court Vision Low's toebox at the big toe are telling us that people with wide feet might feel cramped. Still, our standard-width feet felt fine!

The durable materials of this shoe held our feet in place when we were walking around, but please, don't think about engaging in any sports activities with it. Your feet will be grateful!

As you can see, the containment is not bad, but it's definitely not sports-approved! What's more, don't forget this Nike pair feels flat. It's got no impact protection whatsoever!

The flexibility and low weight of this shoe made our wear tests a breeze (quite literally too, thanks to its wonderful breathability!). When we took it to our lab and started being and twisting it with our fingers, we realised how pliable its structure is.

It's true that minimalist shoes usually have pliable structures, but we were positively surprised to see the Court Vision Low did too, as we've already checked it's got incredibly durable materials!

Despite its overall pliable structure, when we moved our fingers to the heel of the Court Vision Low, it didn't bend over at all! Not even a little bit. That's why we decided to give it a 5/5 on our heel counter stiffness test.

This translated into great heel lockdown. Its overall padded interiors offered us a nice and snug fit, and heel slippage was totally out of the question!

Our calliper returned 106.2 mm, which means this shoe's midsole in the forefoot is narrower than average.

But don't worry, we didn't really feel the difference during our wear tests! We didn't feel unstable or anything.

The heel followed the same path, as it's also narrower than average at 81.3 mm.

As we've already mentioned before, walking with this shoe was wonderful! It bent alongside our feet easily and nicely, so we could enjoy its breathable and lightweight structure to the fullest.

Our force gauge returned 15.3N, which is way lower than average. More specifically, the Court Vision Low is 34% more flexible than the other shoes in its category. This translated into smooth strides, and we loved it.

Before we put it on our scale, we could feel the Court Vision Low was already pretty light on foot. We walked around town with it, ran some errands, went for a coffee... and at no point did we feel it was dragging our feet down!

Once we took it to the lab, our scale returned 12.90 oz/366.0g. And there we have it: this shoe is not only light when it comes to practice, but in theory as well!

At the very first moment we took this shoe out of its box, its toebox totally caught our eyes. Do you want to know why?

Because of all those ventilation holes! We were very excited to see what our smoke machine had to say about all this, so we didn't waste any more time and got the party started.

Choo, choo! The Court Vision Low Express is here! Look at all the smoke coming out of its toebox, that explains why our walks around town felt like a breeze very well.

We wanted to compare this shoe with the Jordan Legacy 312 Low specifically because it also has what it looks like ventilation holes on its upper. Nevertheless, those are covered by an underlayer that we could only spot after using our microscope! Let's compare both of them.

This is a closeup of the Nike Court Vision Low's toebox. As you can see, there's nothing hiding under the round perforations, so the air can get in and out easily.

There you go! The darker edges of each opening made it visually clear for us: those are holes! That's why this Nike pair has earned a well-deserved 5/5 on our breathability test.

On the other hand, the Legacy 312 Low has its ventilation openings all stuffed up with an underlayer. This didn't let the smoke come out of the shoe during our breathability test, so this Jordan pair earned a low 1/5 on it.

In order to keep testing this shoe's upper, we needed our butane torch and scratch awl. This is how we verify if a pair has authentic materials or not. Don't miss out, we're about the fire things up!

The suede bit didn't burst into flames, which means it's authentic.

Uh-oh... the white leather of the toebox was ready to go for a barbeque. It burned down and became all sticky, showing its synthetic nature.

Not even the Swoosh could make its way away from our flame! As you can see, just like the white toebox, it's made using synthetic material.

PS: We're referring to the different colours of the parts of this colorway, but please take into account that they might change if you go for a different colorway in this same shoe.

Dremel, here we are once again, it's your time to shine!

12 seconds of drilling, at 5K RPM and with 3.2N of force, were clearly not enough to get through the Court Vision Low's toebox. We saw the tool struggling and, honestly, we couldn't be any happier about it! After all, you don't see a breathable and durable toebox every day, not even in our lab.

We can barely call that a scratch, so we've decided to give this Nike pair a solid 5/5 on our toebox durability test!

Well, well, what are we gonna do with you, Court Vision Low? Now you've created high expectations in us! And there's only one way to find out if we're right about this... asking our Dremel!

We moved the tool all the way back and started the fight again. Despite being the most fragile part of trainers, generally speaking, the heel padding fought through the damage and ended up with minimal damage.

Look at that! A wonderful result. Consequently, we gave the Court Vision Low a 4/5 on our heel padding durability test.

The next tool in our arsenal is the durometer. We use it to measure the hardness of a specific material and, in this case, we're checking the outsole.

At 87.1 HC, this shoe's outsole is slightly harder than average. Scores like this one usually imply a healthy mix between durability and grip. But hey, here in RunRepeat we test things, so keep reading to find out if this generality is true in the Nike Court Vision Low's case!

This time at 10K RPM, our Dremel brought it all during 22 seconds to damage this shoe's outsole.

After checking the results, we found out the dent is 1.1 mm deep. This is just average, which means the Court Vision Low's outsole won't leave your side any time soon!

Most likely in order to reduce the overall weight of this shoe, Nike went for a 5.0 mm outsole according to our calliper.

Even though this means it's thinner than average, we can understand the brand's strategy after using a durable rubber compound and going for a minimalist look in these kicks.

The hooper past of this shoe shines brightly when it comes to traction.

We were pretty happy with it, and it bit every surface we walked on. As you can see, it features two pivot points, one at the ball of the foot and one at the heel. Around that circle, there are other lines that spread just like when you throw a rock into a lake.

This tread pattern worked wonders. Great job, Nike!

You're the one shining in this shoe, and clearly not its materials!

We found the 7.4 mm of tongue padding of the Court Vision Low just right.

It was distributed in the right areas, just where we tie the laces! We didn't experience any lace bite or uncomfortable rubbing, and the tongue stayed in place thanks to the lace it's got right in the middle.

The minimalist design of this Nike wouldn't vibe with a heel tab!

Instead, we have a colour-blocking patch that gives a wonderful final touch to the whole shoe. It acts as the connecting point of both Swoosh's tails.

If you want to use your own orthotics with this shoe, removing its insole won't be a problem!

Just take into account that it's got a narrow profile before you try to fit big orthotics in it.