This is what I hate about Nike more than anything, even though I benefited from it in this case. They re-issued a horrible version of these and flooded the market with it. The pair I bought, which is OG and very near deadstock, would have cost me $800 easily in the recent past, before the announcement of the retro and possibly even just before its release. Now these sorry ass excuses for the same shoe are out there and these only cost me $250. They screw the collector and the consumer at the same time by releasing an inferior product that devalues the superior one.

I have slowed down a little, mainly because not much out there has appealed to me of late. That still means I am buying 4-5 pairs a week though LOL. I got some of those Notre Dame Clutchfit Drives and also the Championship Banner lows. Starting to dig the shoe anew. The CFD 2 is not as good, I am trying to warm up to the Highlight versions but so far they are just OK and the regular one is a dud. Charged Foam kind of sucks, Micro G is way better. I got some more Ali Phenoms and the black/grey/blue pair also. Good shoe, it could use a little more support though. Reinforce the SpeedForm like they did on the Curry 2, though I can't really grow to love those (again Charged foam, though I do like that on the Fortis runner).

If you like running shoes I think the Asics Gel Quantum and Saucony Iso Triumph 2 are great ones I have tried lately. Quantum is really, really cushy but not mushy. Triumph has great fit, long-lasting comfort. I got some new Mizuno models also but have not worn them yet.

I bought a pair of Air Zoom Ultrafly, a tennis sneaker. Very interesting shoe. It has a Pebax plate like you would find on a football or soccer cleat. I would say the shoe is a combination of the Superfly Mercurial soccer cleat and a traditional Zoom Air tennis shoe. It's maybe not quite as fluid heel to toe as the Lunar Ballistec, still the gold standard for Nike tennis IMO, but it's much faster and the materials are pretty intriguing. I think for a lighter player, this is the best shoe by far, definitely better than the Federer stuff.

I cannot go back to LeBrons. I had a Nike gift card and they were $98 at the outlet, bought three pairs. They are all on eBay, rather turn that gift card into cash now and maybe make a couple bucks. The shoe is bulky though not as heavy on the foot as the last few models. It pinches near the forefoot and there is no effective way to adjust the fit. The bottom-loaded Zoom Air is just bad technology for a basketball shoe as these and the other models (LeBron 12, CP3 IX, etc) prove. The Foam material in the upper is almost 100% superfluous. I thought maybe the Elites would be better but I am not enticed to try them unless they drop to $100 also. The sole sucks in terms of both cushioning and traction. I don't know WTF Nike is thinking.

I got several ID pairs of Kobe 11s. Not sure what I think yet. For basketball I feel like the ankle support is weak and flexibility is very poor. Why did they pare this release down so much? Where is the engineered mesh version? The high top Elite version? In those iterations, the shoe has potential. I like it better than the Kobe 9 Elite low, which is a very similar shoe, but that doesn't say much. I hated those, though I liked the EM version and Elite high version of the 9. The idea of a Flyknit basketball shoe is all for show and I think it complicates the design/engineering. Adidas's use of PrimeKnit is much more effective, though still not ideal for bball.

I still love the Air Jordan XX8. XXX seems to have fixed some issues on the XX9 but I still haven't gotten a pair. Too plain. Will get something cheap down the line, or wait for a color that grabs my attention.