It can be said that Zoom Kobe 4 has changed the design idea of basketball shoes. After ten years, Zoom Kobe 4 Protro is released, it cancels the foam on forefoot and only has a U shaped ZOOM AIR on heelpiece to offer the insole cushion. I’m disappointed at it. As Zoom Kobe 1 Protro has been upgraded to full-length cushion. But the cushion of Zoom Kobe 4 Protro is decreased.
For the appearance, comparing with OG, the biggest variation is Flywire part. The thickness of Protro plastic plate is increased.
Although this sneaker cancels the foam on forefoot. But for cushion part, the cushion of Zoom Kobe 4 Protro has big advantage on the thickness and air pressure. After wearing the shoes, you can feel that the heelpiece part is soft.
The cushion effect is enough for defender. If the heelpiece fall down on the floor firstly, you can feel the cushion obviously.
As the lightest NIKE sneaker in those years, the weight of Zoom Kobe 4 EUR43 is 367g. It has big advantage for this light weight comparing with other sneakers. As it also uses leather shoe head, and TPU strengthening area on heelpiece is big. The weight is already very light for this configuration.
Although it’s low type, but the wrapping performance of Zoom Kobe 4 is excellent. The material of the sneaker is leather with composite plastic. The heelpiece has TPU stabilizing plate. The inner sleeve also improves the integrality of the sneaker. Comparing with present knitted vamp, the support of Zoom Kobe 4 is better. But regarding to the wrapping performance, it’s not better than the knitted vamp.
Traction Performance
This pair of sneaker is stable. The herringbone on the outsole has great force of friction. The heelpiece of this sneaker is separated to be two areas. It can guarantee the heelpiece consistency of force of friction, this design is also the excellent part of Zoom Kobe 4’s outsole. Although the official say that the external expansion area of Zoom Kobe 4 Protro’s forefoot is bigger. But comparing with Zoom Kobe 4, the external expansion area doesn’t have obvious difference. The external expansion is still excellent. It’s more stable than the new sneakers.
Anti-torsion Perforance
Zoom Kobe 4 Protro also use the carbon fiber anti-torsion plate. After dismantling, we find that both of the area and texture keep the same standard as Zoom Kobe 4. It guarantees the stability of insole. But comparing with the new sneakers in the market , when urgent stop in flank, the wrapping performance of this sneaker is not good enough.
Generally, as a pair of protro, Zoom Kobe 4 Protro reduce the configuration, we’re disappointed at it. But relying on previous hardware performance, and the actual performance of Zoom Kobe 4 Protro is excellent, it still can get high scores. After all these years, I feel that Zoom Kobe 4 really was ahead of the time, the low design, new vamp technology and stable wrapping performance of vamp, all of these are its advantages. If you are one of Kobe’s fans, there are too many reasons to buy it. If you want to have a try at the performance of the sneaker from 10 years ago, it’s worthy to buy Zoom Kobe 4 Protro.
