Performance Review: Nike LeBron Air Max Soldier V

words & images // Zac Dubasik “What is that?!” That was my reaction the first time I laid eyes on the Zoom Soldier V. And the element that drew that reaction was its unorthodox system of straps. After hearing the shoe’s designer, Jason Petrie, talk about his top priorities for the latest LeBron shoe, that’s probably the exact element of the shoe he was hoping for a reaction on. “The Soldier has really grown to have this notion of lockdown in the line, and that’s something we’re always looking to emphasize,” he explains. “There’s midfoot lockdown on the IV, and the III had forefoot and collar straps, so we’ve explored already a lot of different places that we could put a strap. We wanted lockdown to be a key focus again, and we wanted to try and do that in a more integrated manner that we hadn’t done before.” The way this system works is that the strap basically starts at the toe as a medial support overlay, travels up the midfoot where it’s attached as an eyelet overlay, then separates as it reaches the top of the tongue. From here, it covers the front of the tongue, and wraps to both sides of the collar, where Velcro straps attach to both sides of the ankle, firmly locking the foot into place. The fact tha...