Reebok Phase Court review

Don't let the Reebok Phase Court sleep on your wishlist forever if:

• You love high-quality designs and you settle for nothing but authentic and really durable materials.
• You're looking for a flexible and comfy pair to run errands or go out with friends that won't make your credit card scream.
• You are a retro lover and the 90's style is your jam.

Even though we were impressed by the high quality of the upper materials of this Reebok, we can't say the same about its outsole. It looked like our Dremel was starving, as it bit the rubber like a hungry kitten eating a sardine. This underwhelming performance on durability doesn't let us recommend this shoe if you want a pair to wear all day, every day. If you don't want to give up on the 90's retro vibes and Reebok trainers are your thing, the Club C 85 Vintage or the Classic Leather might be your cup of tea. Both these shoes' outsoles are long-lasting, and they come at an affordable price too!

Also, even though you can definitely do some physical activity in this Reebok, we really advise you against it. It's not a performance model and, as shoe experts (and very nerdy ones), we can't let you just go for the wrong pair when we've tested so many better options! If you're looking for some new pals to play tennis, check the ones we've reviewed here.

To measure the stack height of any shoe, we first need to cut it up in half. In that way, we have total and unobstructed access to many pieces, including its midsole.

At 26.4 mm, our calliper indicated the Phase Court's heel stack is lower than average. But don't worry, during our wear tests, we still found this shoe pretty comfortable! Not being as tall as some Hoka running pairs (which are basically a skyscraper of a shoe) doesn't necessarily mean your feet won't like a flatter model.

The forefoot follows the same logic, as our calliper returned 15.1 mm. Once again, this is lower than average, but during our wear tests, we still felt shielded from the harsh urban surfaces. It was like a mix of some impact protection and ground feel!

Even though the Phase Court is not the tallest shoe out there, its heel still feels pretty elevated in comparison with the toes (you can see it clearly in the picture below). After measuring both stack heights, we calculated a drop of 11.3 mm, so that explained why.

As we always say, there's no such thing as a "good" or "bad drop", as it basically depends on your personal preferences. Nevertheless, if you want to know some more about this topic, don't hesitate to have a look at our geeky yet handy guide on the matter.

As its official webpage says, this Reebok pair features an EVA midsole, so we didn't really expect to step on a couple of clouds when we put it on.

You can clearly see it in the video: the Phase Court is on the firmer side! When we took it to our lab, our durometer confirmed it by marking 41.0 HA, which is a whole 29% higher than average.

This Reebok pair features a standard insole. There's nothing special about it, and when we measured its thickness, our calliper returned 4.9 mm.

Even with its sleek profile, this Reebok managed to open our calliper all the way up to 100.1 mm when we measured the width of its toebox on the widest part. This translated into some extra space for our standard-width feet, which is great not just in general, but also when you've been walking for a while and your feet start to get swollen.

The only problem is that its vertical volume is not that great. Even though it felt spacious and comfortable enough for us, we can see this becoming a problem for people with big toes.

One look at this shoe was enough for us to realise it tapers towards the tip. Its pointy nature left us with a calliper reading of 72.0 mm, which is lower than average.

This means our toes didn't have much space to move around or spread. So, if you're a big-toed or wide-feet sneakerhead, you might not find this Reebok comfortable due to its cramped toebox. Just to clarify, our standard-width feet felt just right during our wear tests.

Thanks (at least partly) to the leather upper of this shoe, we felt pretty surefooted.

As you can see, it didn't do too bad on our lateral stability test despite its minimalist design. Nevertheless, even though it's a tennis-inspired sneaker, just please forget about playing sports wearing it. We don't believe it offers the support for such activities, and its intended use is literally to accompany you in your daily life, running errands or going out with friends. That's it!

Despite its low profile, the Phase Court still has a bit of a rubber wall around the upper. If we add that to the equation, right next to its solid leather design, we end up with a hard-to-twist shoe. As you can see in the video, our fingers did struggle quite a bit. That's why we've decided to give it a 4/5 on our torsional rigidity test.

This just means that it might take some time for the materials to warm up and start bending effortlessly alongside your feet. But, in our experience, after wearing it a couple of times, the leather starts stretching comfortably and this Reebok becomes even more enjoyable.

Luckily, the heel was a little bit more agreeable. Earning an average 3/5 on our heel counter stiffness test, we didn't have to struggle with any kind of heel rub, which is always great news. And even though this shoe is not meant for any sporty activities, we believe this back piece offers the right mix of support and comfort.

Our calliper returned 109.3 mm when we measured this shoe's midsole width in the forefoot. Even though this is just slightly higher than average, our standard-width feet were pretty happy with the landing platform this Reebok pair provided.

At 81.5 mm, the heel is actually narrower than average. But don't worry, this didn't mean the shoe was uncomfortable or unstable or anything like that. It's just less spacious on that area, but personally, we didn't really mind it.

As expected from its minimalist vibe, the Phase Court didn't need much of a push to bend all the way up to 90 degrees. Our force gauge marked 20.0N, which means it's more flexible than average.

Once we wore this Reebok pair a couple of times, its leather had warmed up enough to bend easily alongside our feet, following every move. This detail improved the general comfort of the shoe, and our walks around town became even nicer!

Throughout this review, we have mentioned a couple of times the minimalist and clean vibe of the Phase Court, keeping a lovely low-profile that looked good with literally everything we had in our wardrobe. Nevertheless, these simple aesthetics don't really match the weight our scaled returned.

At 14.5/410.0g, this shoe is slightly heavier than average. Even though we didn't really feel it during our wear tests, a heavier shoe implies that your feet will generally get more tired after walking for long hours in comparison to a lighter model.

Just by having one single look at the solid structure of this Reebok, we already guessed breathability wouldn't be its strongest point. But here, in RunRepeat, we don't base our opinions on mere speculation or hypothesis; we actually buy every pair of shoes with our own money and test it nonstop!

As expected, our light test showed us... nothing. We couldn't find any ventilation holes, but we didn't lose hope! Maybe the Phase Court would be able to let some smoke out on our second test.

And... once again, nothing. We actually even had to check if our smoke machine was working properly, as there was literally no smoke coming out of this shoe. It just paled in comparison to the ASICS Gel NYC, which scored a perfect 5/5 on our breathability test. Look at that!

Our microscope let us have a closer look at the round holes this shoe has in its toebox. And you know, we could've mentioned them before, as we obviously noticed them as soon as we took this shoe out of its box. But after testing hundreds and hundreds of pairs, we've learned not to trust these details, as they might as well be merely decorative!

That's exactly what happened with the Phase Court. Its breathability is so bad, we could only give it a 1/5 on our test. So we believe it might be better to wear this shoe in winter or when temperatures are low.

We didn't expect a budget pair to have authentic leather and suede, but wow, Reebok. You've outdone yourself!

As you can see, our torch and awl paired up to confirm that the leather piece at the heel of the Phase Court is authentic. We were not welcomed with a massive flame, and the material didn't get sticky after barbequing it.

The suede protective layer of the toebox obtained the same result, fearlessly demonstrating it's also authentic.

We always put our Dremel on the very same spot during our durability tests. Why? Well, because in that way, we can compare every single result we get. Even though in this case the Phase Court was not lucky enough to use its suede overlay as a shield, we still had high hopes.

And we were right to believe! In fact, the result was so good that we decided to give this shoe a perfect 5/5 on our toebox durability test. This means its materials are long-lasting, so this Reebok should stay by your side for a while!

We moved the Dremel all the way to the back to check the heel's durability, and we couldn't keep our mouths closed when we saw the unexpectedly wonderful results!

As you can see, the tool merely damaged the heel padding. So, once again, the Phase Court showed fantastic durability, adding points to its already promising lifespan and earning a well-deserved 4/5 on our durability test.

We press our durometer against a shoe's outsole to measure its hardness. In this case, it returned 86.5 HC, which is pretty much average. This means that this Reebok doesn't focus on neither durability nor traction, offering a little bit of both.

Even though this Reebok features a long-lasting upper, its outsole was a huge disappointment regarding durability. At 10K RPM and with 3.2N of force, the Dremel destroyed its rubber as if it was butter.

When we measured the damages, our tread gauge returned 2.0 mm, which is a whole 50% higher than average. In other words, the Phase Court's outsole will have half of the lifespan of other shoes', which is definitely bad news if you were planning to wear these trainers pretty much every day.

Even though the Phase Court's outsole lacks durability, Reebok didn't use a thicker piece of rubber to make up for it. In fact, when we measured it with our calliper, it returned 4.1 mm, which is lower than average. We believe the brand made this decision thinking about the overall weight and trying to reduce it.

This Reebok's outsole is pretty special, as it features multiple patterns.

As you can see, it has a wavy design at the heel, the typical spiky herringbone pattern in the midfoot, triangles in the forefoot, and the iconic pivot point from basketball shoes at the ball of the foot. Even though this last piece wasn't really a game-changer to us, we're pretty happy with the overall traction of the Phase Court. It bit urban surfaces effortlessly and from the very first minute we put it on, so its grip was on point even without warming up!

If you told us all the advantages of this shoe and made us guess its price, we wouldn't ever, not even in a million years, say it's only £90! It's not just the authentic leather and suede it features, but its entire upper and design have proved to be of the highest quality. Reebok has released yet another wonderful pair of iconic trainers with that 90s vibe that's so trendy nowadays. Fashion victims and wallets will equally love the Phase Court to bits!

It's really uncommon to come across a budget shoe with reflective elements, so we didn't expect this one to feature any. And our lab proved we were right!

This pair's tongue is definitely on the thinner side, and we could feel it as soon as we put the shoe on. When we took it to our lab, our calliper marked 4.8 mm, which is a really low score.

We believe the brand made this decision thinking about reducing the weight of this Reebok as much as possible. Also, as it's not a performance shoe, you don't need to tighten up its laces like crazy, so lace bite should be out of the question.

On the brighter side, Reebok made sure the heel collar and counter were padded enough to offer a comfortable experience.

To keep its retro 90s aesthetics, the Phase Court doesn't have a heel tab. But we didn't feel like we needed one to put the shoe on, as it features a non-gusseted tongue that made things way easier regarding space.

We absolutely love removable insoles, and Reebok just knows how to make us happy! You can change the one the Phase Court features easily just in case you want or need to use your own orthotics.