if you liked the mbo1 you're going to love the mbo3 [Music] what's up guys welcome back to another wear testers performance review my name is Jackson today's performance review is on the Puma mbo3 this is lamelo Ball's third signature shoe with puma and while the overall silhouette has remained pretty consistent over his first three shoes Puma made some changes from the mbo2 to the mbo3 and those changes make this my favorite performer so far in lamello's signature line starting off with the traction the mb03 has an aggressive multi-directional traction pattern and on my pair it
uses both translucent and solid rubber now the mb01 for me had pretty solid traction but it wasn't like the greatest thing ever and with the mbo2 I had issues on dustier quartz so how does the mb03 perform Elite it's awesome traction was great for me no matter what court surface I was on it's not quite as squeaky as the mb01 and mbo2 but we all know or at least we should know that that does not equate to Performance the pattern also wraps up onto the midsole in the forefoot area both on the medial and lateral
sides which is a must when you have a shoe with this much outsole curvature outdoors in the mb03 you'll get good performance but you won't get great durability that's pretty much the norm for any modern basketball shoe aside from those you might get from a Chinese brand like leaning or Anta and while the mb03 has a more durable outsole than the mb01 or mb02 especially the mbo2 I still wouldn't outright recommend the mb03 for outdoor use maybe once these hit clearance and you're able to get a pair for well under retail maybe then it's worth
it but I would not recommend this as your primary outdoor option [Applause] now for the cushion the mb03 has an identical setup as the mbo2 so if you played in those you already know what to expect what you're getting is Nitro foam Pucks in the forefoot and the heel and that is all embedded within compression molded Eva like the mbo2 there is a lot of foam in here so impact protection is one of the highlights of the cushion setup and because it's also a really dense midsole you're going to get one of the more Durable
foam setups on the market you're also a little bit higher up off the ground than most guard oriented shoes so if Court feel is high up on your priority list the mbo3 is not really going to give you what you're looking for like I said that carrier foam is dense it's firm that's what she said so the entire feel of that cushion setup is going to be pretty firm I honestly don't really know what Nitro foam is supposed to feel like because every time I get a shoe where there is Nitro foam in the midsole
it's all caged within a really really firm Eva carrier of course the positive of that is that the cushion is relatively stable underneath your foot even though you're a little bit higher off the ground there is still that relative feeling of stability one thing to note about the cushion is that I'm not that big of a guy so if you're putting a lot more weight down onto that midsole I'm sure it's going to compress a little bit more for you and I'm sure you're going to get some at least slightly different results than I did
I know plenty of people who love that cushion setup on the mbo2 so if you did the good news is it's here but when comparing to other shoes on the market this is definitely on the firm side now for the insole it's a pretty thick ortholite type insole which is standard for Puma at this point what that gives you is really nice step in Comfort but that step in Comfort doesn't last because you're going to bottom out that foam really quickly I've been using my move game day insoles in the mb03 and I've had zero
problems [Applause] all right now let's talk materials and the material setup is probably the biggest upgrade from the mbo2 to the mbo3 what we've got here is a multi-layered textile setup that top layer is a thicker engineered mesh with a more basic mesh underneath it and you also have some fuse in high wear areas to increase the durability that textile upper is soft yet it is still strong enough to contain your foot on any lateral movements I love this setup it requires basically no break in time it's soft it's flexible there's not going to be
any hot spots not going to be any weird Flex Points like I had on the mbo2 because that one had a little bit more of a plasticky upper the cutouts in the engineered mesh material do provide a little bit of airflow but I wouldn't consider the mbo3 to be among the most well ventilated shoes on the market the collar area back here is really soft and it's really well padded so you know no matter how you're tying your laces up here you're not going to get any pinching or discomfort in the collar area foreign on
the mb03 is a pretty basic mesh with some leather overlays and that leather does a good job of blocking any ventilation that might come in but it also does a good job of relieving lace pressure overall this material setup feels very similar to the mb01 which also utilized a combination of textile materials it's flexible it's soft but still strong and supportive now for the fit and the fit is another strong point you've got a really nice one-to-one fit here there is zero Dead Space within the shoe which is an upgrade over the mbo2 which I
found to have just a little bit too much room in the toe box the lacing system of the mbo3 is also another strong point the laces are a little more wide set than on a traditional lacing setup and you've also got these little yellow nylon cables they're not really cables but I don't know what else to call them they don't come all the way down to the footbed like something like Flywire Mite but they still do come down a little bit here on the upper and just give you a little more room to mess with
your laces and make that fit a little bit more adjustable depending on your foot shape the mb03 does run a little bit narrow but with that lacing setup and the soft materials that allows the fit to be a little more accommodating for players who have a normal or maybe even a slightly wide foot so for sizing overall I would recommend that you just go with the size that you normally get in basketball shoes if you're somebody who has wide feet and normally goes up a half size that's what I'd recommend that you do as always
the best course of action you could take is just to go and try them on in a store but I realize that's not possible for everybody [Applause] now on to the support and the support begins and ends with that one to one fit everything is stable my foot was never sliding around within the shoe while I was playing so these little rubber side walls that extend up off the outsole onto the lateral side of the shoe help with stability and you've also got a really solid TPU heel counter that combined with a whole lot of
collar padding provides a really stable feeling in the heel so everything along the upper is working in tandem to keep your foot locked down on the bottom of the shoe you've got a midfoot shank in here it's TPU it's not carbon fiber nothing like that but also just in general this really thick really dense midsole is doing a lot of work just to keep the shoe from bending or twisting but it does also limit the flexibility up here in the forefoot area especially when you compare it to something like this like the two-way V3 from
New Balance I'm not even really trying here I never felt like the mbo3 was limiting my foot natural movement so this will mostly come down to your personal preference if you like something that's a little more sturdy that doesn't Flex quite as easily the mb03 is going to be right up your alley if you like something that's Light low to the ground and really flexible then you might want to skip on these all together overall the mb03 is the best lamelo ball signature that Puma has put out so far the fit is great the materials
are awesome the traction is Elite if you're a player that needs impact protection and you don't want to completely sacrifice Mobility then this might be a shoe that you want to check out if you were a fan of the mb01 then you're gonna be a fan of the mbo3 because they're very very very similar on court I've said this before but in the future I'd like to see Puma provide us with some more Court feel on their Flagship basketball models but I really can't knock the mbo3 that much because I thoroughly enjoyed them on court
well that's about all I've got for the performance review on the mbo3 do all those things that make the algorithm happy drop a comment let me know what you think about the mbo3 and if you've played in them let me know what you think about it do you agree with me do you think I'm full of crap just let me know the best way to support wear testers is to join our Discord community so if you want to do that there will be a link in the description of this video and you can join our
big old Community full of sneaker heads yeah is that a good pitch but anyways that's all I've got for the performance review on the mb03 we'll see you next time peace
