Nike Vapor X Knit Review
The Nike Vapor X Knit has been my tournament shoe of choice for the past few months. It may be the best performance shoe on the market, promoting aggressive movement through a glove-like fit, lightweight feel and unwavering support. It also looks awesome. Unfortunately, one thing makes it pretty pointless.
Nike’s use of dynamic fit is this shoe’s greatest strength. Finger-like strips of material anchor the laces to the base of the shoe, meaning every contour of your foot is carefully held with the utmost precision. There is a TPU guard that holds your foot over top of the midsole on aggressive cuts. The guard combined with the dynamic fit has given me the most supportive experience in any tennis shoe. Ever.
The fit on the knit is narrower than the standard Vapor X. There is more material on the uppers, as the knit is lined on the inside with a neoprene sock. This means you gain support, but you also gain some weight. I found the gains from added support to outweigh the losses from the heavier feel. Sadly, the neoprene sockliner is not very breathable, making it less than ideal for hot climates, but usable in cooler climates. The added material also seemed to add rigidity to the shoe, as I experience a few hours of break-in time before the shoe was fully comfortable.
The Zoom Air in the heel is adequate for most use cases. The unit is pretty thin and there in not much extra foam around it. Cushioning is relatively minimal, so if you are a heavier player, you may need to look elsewhere. The good thing about the modest cushioning is how responsive the ride is. You can feel every crack in the court, every grain of sand in the paint, making sure you can move as aggressively as possible at all times.
Durability has been ok. The knit upper hasn’t torn or shredded anywhere, but the rubber toe-dragging protection get ground up by hard courts. After 5 open level singles sets and 2 doubles sets, I have worn through the rubber to the knit material. This was disappointing because the durability of the uppers on the standard Vapor X lasted me months of intense play.
This is main problem with the Vapor X Knit. You could just by the standard Vapor X and still get the same great fit and support, but you’d also save money and get better breathability. The only reason to buy the Vapor X Knit over the the normal version is for aesthetics. Which is why I bought it. No judgement here.
