Jordan XVIII

Description:

o other player in the modern era has had as much of an impact on basketball, the NBA, and basketball shoes than one Michael Jeffrey Jordan. Does the Air Jordan XVIII, the last shoe to be worn by His Airness in NBA-play, live up to the legend?

In a word, yes. The Air Jordan XVIII is a wonderful expression of the synthesis of style and performance that has always been a hallmark of the most memorable shoes in the Air Jordan line. Another key attribute that the XVIII shares with the best of Air Jordans past is a look that's sure to polarize the balling public. In other words, people are either going to love or hate the design of the Air Jordan XVIII. But while the shoe's design is sure to spark controversy, its performance will almost certainly draw only accolades.


The extent of the "trampoline" effect can vary a lot from shoe-to-shoe depending on the specifics of the way that Zoom Air is implemented. In the case of the Air Jordan XVIII you can really feel it at the forefoot, which is, to me, a big plus. There seems to be a psychological benefit to being able to feel a shoe's cushioning system respond to your movements. The responsiveness lets you know that the shoe is doing what it's supposed to be doing and, when coupled with the fact that Zoom Air's low-profile puts your foot closer to the surface of the court, gives you a better feel for what's going on at your feet. It's similar to the way that a low-to-the-ground sports car with a finely tuned suspension provides its driver with a direct link to the road, thereby increasing his confidence and ability to push the car to its limits. The same principle applies here.

As for the heel of the Air Jordan XVIII, there's a lot more going on there than at the forefoot. For one, a second Zoom Air-Sole unit augments the full-length unit at the heel. This setup is sometimes referred to as double-stacked Zoom Air, which is appropriate since a second Zoom Air-Sole unit is being stacked on top of the first. You might assume that this would result in an even more responsive, more trampoline-like feel at the heel, but that isn't so. This isn't because of any deficiency in the Zoom Air units at the heel, but because of a new technology called the Jordan Carbon Comfort Control Plate that is built-in to the sockliner of the XVIII.


figure 2. The shot above provides a good look at the outsole of the Air Jordan XVIII. The outsole's wavy pattern, which is inspired by the tread pattern of high-performance car tires, provides insanely good traction -- the best I've ever experienced in an Air Jordan shoe. Note also the stitching that runs along the perimeter of the outsole, a detail found on many high-end dress shoes.



The sockliner in an athletic shoe is usually just a thin layer of EVA or PU foam designed to provide a bit more impact protection and cushioning feel. This is true of the XVIII's sockliner, but with an important addition; a section of molded carbon fiber bonded to the underside of the sockliner at the heel (see figure 1). Before going any further here's a bit of a primer on carbon fiber; it's a composite material that's 10 times stronger than steel while being five times lighter, will not corrode (I've read that accelerated lab testing has shown carbon fiber to have a lifespan of between 75 and 100 years), and can be molded into just about any shape imaginable. Carbon fiber was initially developed in the 1960s for the aerospace industry (the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber makes extensive use of a form of carbon fiber), but today, as the cost of manufacturing the material has dropped, its use has spread to everything from high-performance cars to high-end bicycles.

But the Air Jordan XVIII is not the first shoe in the Air Jordan line to employ this wonder material, not by a long shot. That distinction goes to the Air Jordan XI, which was originally released way back in 1995. The XVIII is, however, the first Air Jordan shoe to integrate carbon fiber into its sockliner (actually, as far as I know, it's the first athletic shoe of any kind to do this). Okay, now for the six million dollar question; what's it for? Well, its primary role is to provide an added measure of impact protection at the heel. If you're familiar with carbon fiber you might be asking "wait a second, carbon fiber is hard and brittle, how could it provide impact protection?" That's a good question and the answer is that it doesn't absorb impact forces, but rather distributes them across the entire surface of the heel. This the same function that the external TPU heel counter plays in Nike's Shox-based hoops shoes such as the Nike Shox Limitless. By distributing impact forces the Carbon Comfort Control Plate ensures that they don't focus on any one point of the heel.


figure 3. Beneath the Air Jordan XVIII's integrated lace cover is a fairly traditional hidden-eyestay lacing system. Note the metallic mesh that lines the top of the tongue -- it allows heat and moisture to escape through the surface of the tongue. Note also the metallic discs at the top of the tongue and lace cover. They are magnets that help to keep the lace cover in place.


Now you might be asking "why is so much attention paid to impact protection at the heel of the Air Jordan XVIII?" As Rob Kandle of AND 1 said in our One-on-One interview; "the muscles of the leg and foot act as built-in shock attenuators for the forefoot, whereas the heel only has a fat pad." So even though most impact forces are directed through the forefoot when playing hoops, the heel has a lot less protection built-in. The combination of double-stacked Zoom Air and the Carbon Comfort Control Plate work to make up for that.

The stiffness of the Control Plate also helps to stabilize the heel within the shoe. Though I felt a bit of heel slip while testing the Air Jordan XVIII, I felt no side-to-side movement at the heel and my ankles always felt very well protected.

Speaking of ankles, the XVIII provided very good support around my ankles. It didn't quite match the Air Jordan XVII in this regard, but the XVIII's memory foam-backed ankle area provided more support than most modern-day hoops shoes and didn't overly restrict my ankle's range of motion. And like the memory foam at the ankle area of the adidas Bromium III, the memory foam at the ankle of the Air Jordan XVIII softens as it warms up, allowing it to conform to the shape of your ankle as you wear the shoe. This is a good thing.


Another interesting attribute of the Air Jordan XVIII's ankle area is the venting built-in to the outer. As you can see in our photos, the XVIII has an upper that is fashioned almost entirely out of one piece of material. Add in the lace cover that's stitched onto the upper and the lack of any perforations and you have the formula for an extremely hot shoe. This is where the venting at the ankle comes in. As figure 4 shows, the large vents at each side of the ankle are lined with a fine metallic mesh, under which lies an iridescent material with lots of holes to allow heat and moisture to escape. The shoe's tongue is lined with the same metallic mesh and it also helps to dissipate heat and moisture. The lace cover means that the tongue can't do quite as good a job of dissipating heat as it might, but I was surprised to find that XVIII did not feel excessively hot. It certainly isn't a shoe that I'd want to wear while playing on blacktop on a hot summer's day, but for indoor play I found that it was about average as far as heat build-up goes. The vents at the ankle are also interesting in that they're one of many automobile-inspired elements designed into the XVIII, but more on that in a minute. First a bit on comfort and fit.

Like the XVI and XVII before it, the Air Jordan XVIII is built around a sock-like inner-bootie that wraps around the entire foot. The bootie coddles the foot in nearly seamless comfort, keeping the few seams that do exist far from any areas where they might rub or chafe against the foot. The synthetic material that makes up the bootie also works with the venting system to pull moisture out of the shoe. All-in-all the inner provides excellent comfort. Fit, however, is not quite at the same level.


As noted above, I felt a bit of heel slip while testing the Air Jordan XVIII. I also felt a bit of front-to-back movement of my entire foot and a bit of side-to-side movement at the forefoot. Thankfully, the front-to-back movement was minimal and did not result in turf-toe. The side-to-side movement was a greater concern because it did have a bit of an impact on the overall stability of the shoe. On a couple of occasions when I made a quick lateral change of direction, my forefoot shifted to one side within the shoe and almost caused the shoe to roll over at the forefoot. I emphasize almost because it never actually happened, but the shoe did begin to tip over towards its outer edge. This problem will be of greatest concern to people with narrow feet because the Air Jordan XVIII is quite wide at the forefoot. People with wide feet, on the other hand, will love the generous width of the XVIII.

The funny thing is that, even though the Air Jordan XVII fit better than the XVIII, I preferred playing in the XVIII. It's hard to quantify, but the XVIII just felt more natural on my foot. Whereas the XVII provided so much support that it almost felt like a brace, the XVIII simply felt like a good, comfortable hoops shoe.

So, to sum up, the Air Jordan XVIII is a fitting last shoe to be worn by Michael Jordan in his last days as a professional basketball player (it makes me sad just to write that). It's not perfect, but it brings back the "fun-to-wear" feeling that I think has been missing from the Air Jordan line in recent years. The XVIII provides insanely good traction, excellent comfort, excellent cushioning, very good ankle support, and good fit in an elegant package that will be noticed. It also introduces a new technology in the form of the Jordan Carbon Comfort Control Plate that provides added impact protection at the heel. The only players that I wouldn't recommend the shoe to are big, heavy centers (the full-length Zoom Air unit may not provide enough cushioning at the forefoot for really big fellas) and those with very narrow feet (the forefoot of the shoe is very wide). If you're a Jordan fanatic the choice is simple, but even those without posters of His Airness adorning their walls will find a lot to like about the Air Jordan XVIII. In short it's a shoe that delivers the goods both on-court and off -- so long as you can handle the price.