Nike Renew Elevate 3 Performance Review From The Inside Out - Biggest Reasons To Buy Or Not

hey what's up zack here and today i've got the nike renew elevate 3 and these are all the reasons you may or may not want to buy them here we go now the biggest selling point of the renew series in nike's basketball line is its price point and there are a lot of places in the shoe where you can tell nike has cut costs to bring that price down and i think the place on the shoe that that's most evident is in the uppers and that's not to say the uppers aren't comfortable i mean it's

a two layer woven upper a lot of padding in there and they are pretty forgiving i really had no break-in on these in the upper and for a nike shoe and my wide foot that is saying something the problem with the uppers though is that there's really not a lot of containment there either sliding front to back or side to side and i think that lack of containment feeling was most evident on the shuttle test came in at 14.90 seconds which was all due to the shoe being so streamlined and aerodynamic and fast on the

straights and that time is still pretty pretty average however on the turns is where i was really losing the most speed and that's just because the uppers i really had no confidence so whenever i go into turns i really measured my steps because i was afraid my foot was almost going to rip through the uppers and that lack of protection in the uppers combined with the pretty cheap shoe laces just kind of gives these uppers the feel of a more budget shoe the interesting thing about that though is if you just look at the upper

durability test the dremel 10 seconds highest grit sandpaper it really didn't get through this little drag guard here on the inside of the shoe so it's not that they're not resistant to abrasion they're just not resistant to force but the interesting thing is when i was looking at the dremel mark on this i actually noticed that this rubber piece right here on the outside of the shoe the glue job is actually starting to come off right here so just some other areas where it's evident that this shoe just might not have the build quality of

some others now getting into the midsole tear down this is where the shoe actually pleasantly surprised me if you look here you have this renew foam going all the way from the heel all the way to the forefoot now renew foam is basically nike react foam without as much of the elastic particles in it it's just not as responsive as react is but made of the same etpu material now as you notice here there's this black bar of foam right here and then the eva underneath of that so technically you are getting a three layer

foam set up here as well as a pretty stiff shank right underneath the arch of your foot for stress shielding however the interesting part of this is is how high the stack is in the heel as well as the arch and what's really weird is that the strobo board here is really thick i have not seen a snowboard this thick in a shoe that actually contributes to a few millimeters of its stack height the problem is is the heel to toe drop but more importantly the arch to toe drop is really steep so your foot

is really being propped up from heel to toe but even with that surprisingly big stack and three layers of foam i only got 34 centimeters on the jump height test and really the only reason i even got that high off the ground i think was just because of this stiff shank right here that's really the only thing that gave the shoe any bit of snapback and the reason i think i just didn't get a lot from the foam is it's just not all that responsive nike renew foam just like doesn't have a lot of bounce

to it and the ev layer underneath of it didn't really do much for it either so it was really just me lugging the shoe up in the air as well as that shank that was doing all the work there but moving on to a part of the renew elevates i really liked was the outsole tread it is a really broad radial pattern here in the heel going into a ripple pattern going around the perimeter and then another little radial almost hurricane-like pattern on the inside or just kind of center of the shoe what i liked

about that is it gave so many opportunities for grip number one on hardwood courts but also on slick outdoor courts or gritty asphalt courts this pattern really melds into the court surface gives you a lot of surface area contact however the problem with that is if you look at the outsole durability test the dremel 10 seconds highest grit sandpaper about a millimeter and a half of damage maybe a little bit more on a three millimeter tread depth so this rubber is just kind of soft even if you look at the durometer of it comes in

at 11 which should be a medium to hard compound rubber however its resistance to abrasion just really isn't there so even though this shoe will kind of melt into the court and give you tremendous grip and tremendous surface area contact you are going to pay for that on the back end now the fit of the renews actually a little surprising because they almost have the shape of a hot dog bun even though they're not the most wide shoes in the forefoot because they don't taper any they're still going to fit narrow medium and even a

wide width foot my standard size i had minimal cramping in these however i'd say if you want to be safe and you're a tui i probably would go up that half size however somebody with ball of foot pain probably would avoid however while the shoe is new or if you can get an orthotic in there somebody with arch pain more straining in their arch because the foam is so rock hard while the shoe is new pretty good as that foam starts to break down you're going to notice a rapid decrease in support however for a

new shoe in the budget category surprising how much arch support they do have the one other thing i really like about the fit of the renewal of a3 is that the heel counter and ankle collar is high enough you can fit an insert in these and because there's not a lot of tapering that insert doesn't bulk the shoe up in the forefoot too much so if the midsole foam is a little bit too rock hard for you you can still throw an orthotic in there and augment them a little bit and still make them a

little bit more of a comfortable shoe over the long run for you and getting into the playability there are new elevate threes you know they do have some highlights they are an incredibly shifty shoe you really can get around yourself pretty easily they do get out of their own way pretty well they're not as bulky as some other models so if you do have a little more flashy footwork these can't allow you to do that other thing is they're pretty fast in a straight line especially because the rocker back here is pretty extreme so if

you are someone that really likes to bound down the court especially if you're striking on the heel or you're just taking really long strides these will kind of give you a little more fluid footwork in that direction i did notice that the lateral flange is pretty aggressive here in the outsole now i did notice that because that foam just isn't all that resistant i was kind of plowing through that so these aren't the most stable shoes laterally and because that heel to toe drop is pretty intense you know these aren't going to contain you going

forward or side to side your foot kind of slides down there like a ski hill so if you are trying to make any more step back moves or just trying to plant and pivot really hard or try to drive to the net really hard your toe toes gonna bang up into the forefoot of the shoe into the toe box of the shoe so you can end with runner's toe or something like that so in terms of really aggressive side to side movement or if you're a big center or power forward trying to make moves on

the court i just i don't really see a place for these these are more for a lighter weight player someone who's not going to use these really aggressively or if they are doesn't mind banging around in the shoe now what i'm noticing after lay up and lay up and jump shot and jump shot is this foam is really unforgiving especially on harder kind of asphalt quartz down here however even the foam setup is a little bit unforgiving for jumping sports where you're staying on the ground or the rubber is staying on the court surface like

tennis and pickleball these shoes are actually a really nimble budget option for you a little bit lighter than some other nike tennis shoes and they give the same amount of grip on a tennis or pickleball court they're also a little bit lighter and faster so if you're not someone with really aggressive side to side movement or someone's playing pickleball more getting anything low to the ground more wanting a little more of that traction it's actually a pretty good pick up i think the best way to describe the playability of these is when i was shooting

threes in the perimeter and they just felt like absolute bricks on the jump shot however they were quick enough and shifty enough for me to get back into position for my own rebounds every time so they kind of just fill that in between space that will be good for certain players but you really got to be the right player in these to find these useful and comfortable over a long period of time and speaking of playability if you want to see a deep dive and tear down on one of nike's most elite playing shoes at

the moment make sure you check out my review and tear down on the kd15 above and subscribe down below respect your auburn film see in the next video