For longtime fans of Adidas Basketball, the Feet You Wear series of silhouettes that was first launched during the mid-1990s and worn by Kobe Bryant often serves as a defining era for the brand, even all these years later.

The wavy and quirky designs were rooted in performance and based on the needs of the sport, but took on a life beyond the game as the rounded styling and flowing lines extended off the court. Taking inspiration from some of the earliest beloved Feet You Wear models, Adidas is reimagining the future of their hoops category with a new modernized performance take on FYW, this time upgrading tech for today’s time with the company’s bar-raising Boost cushioning.

It’s simply dubbed the adidas Crazy BYW X, as in Boost You Wear.

First debuted by both Nick Young and Brandon Ingram just weeks ago at the Staples Center, the model is also expected to hit the hardwood throughout this month on the feet of recently re-signed All-Star point guard John Wall.

“The future of Adidas is on a different level with these,” said Swaggy P.

The same size as each aforementioned player, I was able to get my hands on a pair early, quickly throwing them on to see just how updated and improved the silhouette and tech are. As a huge, huge fan of nearly every last Feet You Wear model — I still pull out my original pairs of the Top Ten 2010, KB8, AW8 and KB8 III — I was most curious to see how the BYW X’s Boost platform felt.

While the original FYW models all featured great court feel, support and balance, they were admittedly a bit firm. The BYW X features a full-length Boost platform — there’s a healthy helping of Boost throughout each pod of the outsole. Right out the box, that familiar Boost softness fires through the heel, and feels responsive in the forefoot as well, with support on the court coming by way of a rubberized forefoot wrap.

The other impressive element that quickly stood out is how well sloped and contoured the upper’s mesh and knit construction fit. The silhouette and fit is what I had hoped for from the Crazy Explosive models. My favorite part from a design standpoint would be the toe down, which incorporates a veering accent line circling around the toe cap.

MATERIALS
WEAK ON PAPER, AMAZING ON THE COURT

Although the dual Mesh upper with some knit & suede hits sounds like a rip-off in the middle of the day considering its price, the upper actually did perform like a true banger though. Considering that the Mesh construction is double layered, it didn’t feel clumsy or thick. On the contrary, it was really soft to the touch and pretty form-fitting, while still maintaining that durability & longevity on a high level. Obviously, it’s not on the same comfort level as Primeknit or Flyknit, but I think it’s worth to give away some comfort in exchange of increased durability. Am I right?

Looking a little bit higher, there we can find a knitted ankle collar which is an essential part of a one-piece bootie construction to create an easy access to the shoe. And while I didn’t receive any issues putting them on due to fairly stretchy knit, wide footers may have a bit tougher time doing that. Still, it shouldn’t be so big of a deal whatsoever.

CUSHION
THE MOST VERSATILE SET-UP?

So we do have the Crazy Explosive line which is famous for its extremely squishy BOOST with ton of impact protection to offer. There’s also the Harden signature line for those who need a true guard-oriented tooling underneath their feet with a nice low-profile ride & plenty of responsiveness. But how about connecting best of both worlds, huh? This is where the Crazy BYW X comes in and saves the day. Save to say, this is the most well-rounded BOOST midsole out right now, period.

As you can see, the midsole is decoupled which allows the forefoot and heel move separately to even further enhance that all-around performance. And although this type of construction isn’t very commonly used in the ball shoe manufacture, I do think that it suits this sneaker perfectly in terms of how performance & style go.

The forefoot does play very much like the tooling on the Harden Vol.1 – BOOST is fully-caged with this semi-translucent rubber, making the forefoot really stable & responsive to any type of move. So if you’re a heavy forefoot striker or you just enjoy responsive ride, this is definitely what you need. Now talking about the heel, it seems like adidas just slapped that gigantic slab of BOOST and that’s about it. Yep, that should do it. Ironically, this beefy-looking slab of BOOST did its job flawlessly – crazy amount of impact protection & pillow like softness. PERFECT stuff for a heavy or explosive player.

TRACTION
YOU CAN’T GO WRONG WITH THE HERRINGBONE, AREN’T YOU?

Same thing as the cushion, the BYW X features two different traction patterns for each BOOST unit – herringbone in the forefoot & Crazy Explosive type of pattern in the back. On paper, this stuff sounds like a true punisher. However, we ain’t playing on paper, we’re playing on the damn hardwood.

No surprise, on clean courts I didn’t receive any issues whatsoever – just pure “strait up glue” performance. But that doesn’t mean much since a 50$ budget performer is able to bring out this type of performance on a regular basis as well. So the only way to separate the men from the boys, is to throw them on a dirty court.

While on clean courts these bad boys where phenomenal, dust problems kept them from being great on rough surfaces too. I’m definitely not saying that it was garbage or just a pure dog shit. Nah, that’s not the case. The main reason is the herringbone pattern being to narrow & compact to the point where it becomes a pure dust magnet once you touch the floor. The heel portion, on the other hand, did its job nicely even when dust was present. So in order to receive that killer bite, you need to wipe those damn bottoms whenever you have a free second or two (if you have two free seconds – wipe them twice for the good measure).

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the worst part… That god damn DURABILITY was the worst part of this traction. Rubber was so delicate that it did fray as fast as my ice cream on a sunny day, and I’m not exaggerating right now. I’m dead ass. It must be the softest rubber I’ve ever tested in my entire career. And that comes from a 200$ sneaker? It’s just unacceptable in any context man.

FIT
COMFORT LEVEL OVER 9000

Going back on a winning streak, fit was definitely one of the best, if not the best highlight of this shoe. As usually with my adidas kicks, I went 1/2 a size down and it did work out perfectly fine for me. Wide footers should go true to their size.

First time lacing them up, they did feel a bit too tight, especially on the lateral sides. So I was forced to chill out for a sec and loosen those laces up, in result, giving away some containment in the process. Luckily, after a few spins the mesh did break in nicely, letting me to tighten my shit up back again and put in some serious work on the hardwood. So break in process was a thing but it wasn’t super long or painful whatsoever, pause.

Again, after putting in some hours on the court, that mesh & knit combo evolved into more forgiving & better form-fitting tooling. And together with that minimalistic lacing system, I was able to achieve near custom made like fit. Just simply enjoyed every single second spend in these.

SUPPORT
NOTHING TOO INNOVATIVE, BUT GETS THE JOB DONE WELL

At first glance the BYW X clearly doesn’t seem to have a very supportive construction, however, performance speaks for itself once you get loose on the court. For what they stand for (comfort & light ride), I couldn’t be much happier with this straightforward, yet above solid set-up.

The lacing system is pretty much the same stuff as on the last year’s Crazy Explosive model, only this time, adidas added a few straps both on inner & outer sides for improved lateral containment. Talking about lateral containment, there’s a quite vastly sized suede panel, as well as, rubber extension to really keep that mesh from stretching out once pressure is applied. Meanwhile, the back has this perfectly molded internal heel counter for strong heel lock-down. Hell slippage? Not in these bad boys.

The base itself is considerably wide, so I did feel completely stable while making any type moves. And despite the fact that there isn’t any outrigger, that protruded BOOST midsole compensates its loss with bunch.

OVERALL
As much as I did enjoy playing in them, I still can’t get over their price tag. It has been bugging me the entire way. Even so, I’m still think that the Crazy BYW X is a solid performer and adidas did a great job of showing us a sneak peak of the hoop sneaker feature. However, the shoe has one pretty ugly flaw that a $200 product shouldn’t be having. Personally, I would love to see them priced at $160 or something in that price range. Let me know how much you would pay for them in the comment section below.

I can only see people who own multiple pairs in their rotations actually buying adidas hi , just to update their collection & play around from time to time. Now, if you don’t have multiple pairs to hoop in and you’re looking for a solid performer for a new season or maybe two, just pass these bro. There’re plenty of cheaper alternatives that could deliver great all-around performance and ability to play outdoors without having a head ache.