Nike G.T. Cut 4 review

Nike's G.T. Cut 4 might be ideal for you if:

• You won't settle for anything but the best underfoot experience.
• You're looking for an explosive hooper with the softest landings.
• You want a mouth-opening, flashy basketball pair for your daily tasks

Even though this hooper comes with incredibly avant-garde midsole technologies, it lacks the supportive elements (it doesn't even have a shank... Nike, please!) to make it a top performer. Additionally, its plasticky materials make it hard for it to offer safe and fearless containment. If you're looking for an incredibly stable, flashy hooper, the LeBron XXII or the more affordable and toned-down G.T. Cut Academy might be your cup of tea.

If you're a G.T. family lover but you need something lighter and more spacious that doesn't sacrifice its explosive ride and wonderful impact protection, having a look at the Hustle 3 should be mandatory!

The G.T. Cut 4 features an amazing cushioning setup with a standard shock absorption of 105/73 SA in the heel and forefoot, respectively. Even though it felt absolutely amazing underfoot, we can't totally agree with Nike's claims of this pair's full-length Zoom Strobel offering extra impact protection.

Nevertheless, we absolutely agree regarding bounce, as this pair scored a fantastic 72.4% on the heel and an even more impressive 79.4% in the forefoot on our energy return test. The feeling underfoot is just fantastic!

The insane design of this Nike's midsole allowed it to get a lower-than-average stack without jeopardising its underfoot feel. Our calliper returned 26.1 mm, even though we would have never said it doesn't reach the category's average from what it felt like on foot!

And the same goes for the forefoot! Our calliper returned 20.9 mm, but this outstanding cushioning made us feel way further from the court.

After doing our math, we've concluded this pair features a rather low drop of 5.2 mm. But don't worry, the massively layered structure of its midsole won't let you think about anything else but how comfortable it feels!

At 27.3 AC, our durometer Asker C agrees with our feet: this shoe is SOFT. Its ZoomX 3.0 Drop-in midsole came to life in every step, and we just couldn't get enough of it.

But the best part is that this plushy goodness rests on a Cushlon foam carrier that adds some extra support with its stiffer 51.1 AC durometer score.

After our wear tests, we can totally say this shoe's fit is narrow, and we later verified it in our lab thanks to our gel cast. Our calliper marked 91.3 mm, so it's definitely not a good match for wide-foot hoopers!

At 65.6 mm, this Nike pair tapers like crazy. Even though it's not as bad as the Zion 4, our toes did feel cramped.

Conversely, the toebox height reaches a fantastic 29.1 mm! Surpassing the average by a lot, we were absolutely flabbergasted. Like, Nike, why wouldn't you make the toebox horizontally wide, too? This extra vertical space didn't save our toes from wanting to escape from its poky structure.

With a great friction score of 0.75, we enjoyed the G.T. Cut 4 traction in every aggressive cut we went for... which fits its name like a glove!

This Nike's outsole is made of RBF foam, and it features a changing wavy pattern with short, thin lines, which definitely looks like streetball's favourite prey! That being said, it felt pretty good on indoor courts, as its tiny dents followed our moves and changes of direction.

We're not huge fans of the plasticky materials of this hooper, but they let its forefoot bend easily in our test. Our machine only needed 17.0N of force, which is way less than the category's average.

Not even the heaven-worthy cushioning of this Nike could justify its hefty weight of 15.2 oz. Even though there are many shoes that reach such quantities due to their supportive elements, the G.T. Cut 4 features none of those!

Overcoming the G.T. Cut 3's lack of breathability, this latest iteration scored a solid 3/5 on our breathability test thanks to its double upper.

As you can see, the plasticky, blue (in this colorway) part didn't do much to let the air come in and out of the shoe. The tongue and darker inner side carried the whole airflow on their shoulders!

Our microscope showed us that the textile part of this Nike pair features big ventilation holes that let our feet breathe during our most intense games.

And it worked! We can't say our feet felt fresh, but the airflow was decent.

To be honest, after checking this shoe's materials with our own hands... all we can say is that they simply can't offer good support. They are plasticky and feel frail to touch. There's no way they'd offer great containment, and our feet knew it from the very first step.

Look at our heel, it's completely separated from the collar!

The 15.5 Nm score the Cut 4 got on our torsional rigidity test just confirmed what we previously mentioned. It doesn't offer good lateral containment, which has a quite negative effect on its performance and playability.

Despite its underwhelming lateral stability, the heel's solid efforts to make this Nike a supportive shoe were clear when it got a perfect 5/5 score in our rigidity test.

We loved the wider landing base of the G.T. Cut 4, which reached 117.9 mm in the forefoot.

And the heel follows the same philosophy! At 93.7 mm, we didn't feel like we needed some extra space to enjoy safe landings after rebounding.

We were happily surprised when this Nike earned a great 4/5 on our toebox durability test. After all, it offers solid breathability, and those two usually don't go together!

The heel padding decided not to give in at all, earning a perfect 5/5 on our Dremel test!

With an average dent of 1.1 mm, the G.T. Cut 4's outsole withstood our Dremel like a champ!

Playing it safe, Nike opted for a 4.1 mm-thick outsole. It's an average score, yet we wouldn't really recommend this pair to play outdoors.

The Cushlon carrier of this pair reaches a solid 9.6 mm! The underfoot feel of this pair couldn't get any better regarding comfort, that's for sure.

This Nike's Cushlon carrier is completely removable, but... we'd advise you against it. To be honest, it's the only piece that offers a slight hint of containment for lateral moves. We've fallen head over heels for its incomparable cushioning setup, but not having a shank, an external cage, or any other supportive piece just ruins this otherwise otherworldly experience.

The G.T. Cut 4 doesn't have a single reflective element.

We believe that, in a futile attempt of the brand to reduce this shoe's weight, it went for an ultrathin tongue of 2.0 mm. Even though this helped with breathability, we've got more bad news: the G.T. Cut 4's tongue dug in our ankles during our wear tests!

This Nike pair comes with a one-side fully gusseted tongue.

Much like its Cut 3 sibling, the Cut 4 doesn't have a pull tab either.

Even though we can see the godlike midsole making the price of this Nike pair skyrocket, our tests have shown its £180 tag... is too hard to justify. And we're not only talking about the plasticky materials, but also about the lack of any lateral-support elements (like a shank, for example). Rather than a performer, this hooper feels more like a flashy basketball-inspired pair of trainers.