YOUR TIME HAS COME PlayStation®3 system – October 07, 2014 PC – October 07, 2014 Xbox 360® – October 07, 2014 Xbox One – October 07, 2014 PS4™ – October 07, 2014 iOS – October 07, 2014 Android – October 07, 2014 YOUR TIME HAS COMETo start the third quarter against the Houston Rockets, Kevin Durant shoots up to the right elbow off a screen to receive a pass. His defender draped all over him, Durant catches the ball just inside the 3-point line, turns toward the basket and makes his move. In the wake of his drive and mid-range runner that hits all net, he leaves something behind: A size 18 KD8. His left shoe flops to rest as Durant makes his way back on defense with his sock scooting across the hardwood. The shoe came off twice in last week's loss to the Rockets. Since last season, any time the words “Durant” and “foot” are used in the same sentence, eyebrows raise immediately, as they did when Durant returned last season and wasn't wearing the newest version of his signature Nikes.
This season, however, has been so far so good for Durant, and six games in, shoe concerns are slowly being put to rest. Well, except the keeping them on part. “I'm not used to wearing tape or ankle braces, so my foot is a little more bulky in my shoe,” Durant said. “I've been taping this year and trying to do different things to keep my foot inside my shoe more.” Look at Durant during this season and you'll see reinforcement beyond the redesigned kicks on his feet: his socks are noticeable thicker from the braces and tape on both legs. Durant, however, also has reworked cushion under his feet as well. , is involved in heavily tracking what every NBA player is wearing on their feet. In August, he had a chance to interview Leo Chang, Nike Basketball's design director, who has designed every Durant shoe to date. Even before Durant's stress fracture last summer, the plan was already in place to deviate from previous versions of the shoe. “That was kinda a key thing that (Chang) had clarified, that (Durant) had already played in it,” DePaula said of Durant testing the KD8 before last summer.
“The shoe is lower to the ground and a little more flexible, I guess you would say. The 7 was a little more sturdy and a little more high off the ground, so it (the 8) is a little more nimble in that sense, but I think that's kind of the direction KD wanted to go regardless and the injury was after the fact, so it didn't have as much of an effect on it.” Forty-one nights this season, you'll see teams come into Chesapeake Energy Arena with players wearing Durant's shoe. Many times it'll be the player guarding him, as Wilson Chandler did in preseason with the Denver Nuggets. Going back a decade, the lowtop has evolved into a shoe of choice for numerous NBA players. DePaula said the revolution started with guards Steve Nash and Gilbert Arenas wearing lows consistently, then Kobe Bryant, and now Durant. “I've played in a lot of lows over the years, and never had an issue,” DePaula said. “Some people look at the shoe and think it doesn't have ankle support, really the ankle support comes from the midfoot fit, the collar lockdown and how stable the platform is.
You're seeing lows all over the league at all positions, whether it's centers, power forwards or point guards.” “Some people think the higher it is the more protection there is but it's really not,” said Thunder guard Andre Roberson, who also wears KD8s. “It's more so how they fit your feet, what's comfortable for you cutting-wise. “If you get taped, it doesn't really matter.” Hightop vs. lowtop is one thing, but what about stress on the foot? With the constant jumping and cutting of basketball players, particularly 6-11 ones with the rare skillset of Durant, what's underneath the player is even more critical than how much ankle is exposed. When Durant wore the KD Elite 6 for just a few playoff games in his MVP season, he quickly went back to the standard KD6. The Elite 6 used the same full-length Zoom Air unit from the LeBrons, a unit that was higher off the ground and “a little beefier and sturdier,” says DePaula. The KD7 had a heel bag and a smaller forefront bag in the front of the shoe.
The KD8 goes back to the full-length bag, but instead of being designed like the LeBron, it has more contours, narrows at the arch and has what DePaula calls “flex grooves” on the outside of the forefoot and on the heel. said of the KD8 “instability is pretty much a non-issue.” “It's a bag that's more flexible, nimble and anatomical that the LeBron bag was, with the idea that it would help KD as he was trying to move a little faster,” DePaula said. “Make it lighter, make it more flexible, make it lower to the ground was the three big takeaways they put into the 8 and the bag that they put in there.” Last year, when Durant went back to his KD6 shoe for the majority of his abbreviated injury return, there was question as to why he wasn't using the latest version (KD7). The switch was a flashback to a move LeBron James made when he had issues with the fit of his LeBron 11 at the beginning of his final season in Miami. “I could wear them, but they don't feel as great as I want them to feel,” James said in 2013 when he switched back to the LeBron X. “So we're redefining them, and I feel like this next round is going to be perfect.”
something similar in 2014 to James' answer: “KD will be wearing orthotic inserts as he returns from surgery on his right foot. The existing KD 6 shoe design is currently the best solution to accommodate the orthotic. The Nike design team is perfecting the KD7 to accommodate KD's orthotic.” But that perfection of the KD7 never really came to fruition as Durant finished his 27-game stint in the KD6. It was more streamlined option than the KD7 which was constructed with foamposite material around the collar and heel which made it firmer, less flexible and heavier. “Last year, I had to wear tape, ankle braces, orthotics in my shoe,” Durant said Saturday when explaining why he shelved the KD7. “I went back to the lighter shoe, nothing more than that.” The KD8 has required some adjustment by Durant, but more so because of what's going into it rather than its materials. When it comes to the shoes slipping off his feet, however, Durant may just need to use double knots in order to keep NBA fans' hearts in their chests.