New Balance Kawhi IV review

Don't let the Kawhi IV sleep in your wishlist forever if you're looking for:

• A super padded and comfortable pair that also offers fantastic breathability.
• A solid shoe that provides incredibly good support and lockdown.
• A versatile hooper that offers some bounce and pretty good traction in any court.

Even though the Kawhi IV couldn't be considered a ballast for your foot, it definitely is on the heavier side. We didn't feel it that much during our wear tests, but if you have a quick and agile playstyle, you might as well want to have a look at our lightweight hoopers.

The use of extra plush FuelCell foam made the Kawhi IV feel amazingly comfortable and protective underfoot, especially in the heel.

But it's not an exceptionally cushioned shoe as our shock absorption measurements showed only standard measurements of 103 SA in the heel and 78 SA in the forefoot. If you are a bigger player looking for maximum cushioning in a NB shoe, try the Fresh Foam BB v2 (118 and 96 SA, respectively).

The New Balance Kawhi IV is not the most explosive hoop shoe out there, but it offers a little bit of spring and rebound to keep every move pleasantly dynamic.

Our energy return tests recorded slightly below-average readings of 54.9% in the shoe's heel and 57.9% in the forefoot.

At 30.9 mm, this New Balance's heel stack is slightly higher than average. But it's not too tall to compromise stability or court feel.

The forefoot stack is just average at 21.8 mm, according to our caliper.

Even though this area is closer to the ground than the heel, the court feel wasn't as pronounced under the ball of our foot. As the Kawhi IV focuses more on protecting our landings from the harsh surface, it keeps a foamy barrier between the feet and the floor.

A drop of 9.1 mm is something we don't see every day on a basketball shoe! As you can see in this picture, the heel is a bit taller than the forefoot.

As we've just mentioned, the Kawhi IV features a dual-density midsole. Consequently, we stuck our durometer in both the white and the red foam (in this colorway), but we got very similar results.

The white material scored 15.0 HA, which is way softer than average. This explains why we felt the Kawhi IV super plush underfoot.

The red foam got a slightly higher reading of 17.0 HA. It's fairly common in dual-density designs for a firmer foam to be positioned closer to the ground, protecting the feet, and a softer one to be placed right next to the foot, providing some extra comfort.

But in the case of the Kawhi IV, we're talking plush foam on top of a little less plush foam!

We couldn't help but notice the Kawhi IV's rather snug fit for a standard D medium width. But having created the gel mold of the shoe's interiors, we were able to see what's up.

As soon as the shoe's gel replica froze solid, we grabbed a caliper to measure its widest part. At only 89.9 mm, this New Balance shoe is notably narrower than the average! Players with narrow feet will definitely appreciate the snugness.

But if you need more space for long court sessions, the Kawhi IV is readily available in a wide width as well.

On a positive note, the tip of the shoe's toebox brought no surprises with a standard width of 70.6 mm near the big toe. It is a moderately rounded, non-restricting shape that doesn't cause any toe pinching.

The Kawhi IV's vertical space also proved to be on par with the average at 23.0 mm.

Testing the Kawhi IV's grip on smooth and polished hardwood, we recorded a solid friction coefficient of 0.73. This translates into a grippy but not sticky on-foot experience that accommodates fast and explosive moves.

This New Balance shoe features a mix of translucent and black rubber compounds to provide zonal traction. The translucent blend feels softer and tackier, which is more necessary in the forefoot area.

We enjoyed a bit of give that this New Balance pair offered in the forefoot. Our test showed that it takes 17.4N to bend the shoe by 30 degrees, which is a little less than it takes on average.

This contributes to the shoe's overall comfort, allowing the foot to move a bit more naturally and minimizing the break-in period. And the best part is that this pliability is combined with the shoe' reinforced and tough structure so that support is not compromised.

There are many things that we want to talk about in this section. But let's start with our lab data and findings.

When we put this shoe on our scale, it returned 14.4 oz/407g. It sounds like a lot, and it actually is more than average. But it's not a bulky pair at all!

The thing is that... with such weight, we should've felt it dragging our feet during our wear tests. However, it felt pretty good! Like, yeah, we definitely felt it was heavier than other hoopers we had played in, like the NB Two WXY V4 (13.05 oz/370g), but the Kawhi IV didn't make us feel tired sooner than expected.

It's definitely not the fastest shoe, though. That's for sure. But we can't say it slowed us down like crazy during our games. Despite its weight, it still felt kind of quick on our feet! Not light and nimble, but definitely in tune with our moves.

When we took it out of the box, we noticed this shoe's upper looked pretty solid. Before we played in it, we bet it was not going to be breathable. And boy, were we wrong!

First off, we could see the shade of our own fingers through the upper, which was already a fantastic beginning regarding ventilation. But we wanted to know more, so we asked our smoke machine about its opinion.

Wow! Look at all that smoke coming through! The Kawhi IV was easily breathing in and out, just chilling in our lab. But the Nike Book 1... someone save that poor thing from choking, its 1/5 on our breathability test didn't need any further evidence.

On the other hand, the NB pair showed a well-ventilated engineered mesh upper with some synthetic overlays. We grabbed our microscope to have a closer look at the mesh, but we had already decided that the Kawhi IV deserved a fantastic 4/5 on our breathability test.

When we put on this shoe to hoop for a while, we realized not only how comfortable, but also how structured it was from the very first minute.

As you can see in the video, its structure doesn't let our ankles play around much. Like a wall, it just stops it before it comes any closer to overextending itself.

We really appreciated this, as it made us feel safe in the shoe. This confidence made us play better, as we felt ready to go for more aggressive or powerful moves!

As we expected, bending and twisting the Kawhi IV was pretty much impossible!

Our fingers struggled a lot, yet the structure of this New Balance pair didn't give in! This is most likely because of the extended rubberized walls it features on the sides. They made this shoe feel incredibly supportive to us, and they also added some extra durability acting as protective layers.

For toe-draggers like us, these protective elements are life-saving!

Anyway, after trying this shoe in our lab and out, playing some basketball games in it, we've decided to give it a perfect 5/5 on our torsional rigidity test.

The extra padded heel counter wouldn't bow to us much either. Its sides were a little bit more agreeable, but the area of the Achilles made our fingers struggle once again. There's a TPU heel cage after all!

Consequently, we've decided to give it a fantastic 4/5 on our heel counter stiffness test. This means that the structure wraps around the foot nicely, and it's not harsh enough to actually hurt the skin of that area. At least not in our experience!

When we measured this shoe's midsole width in the forefoot, our caliper returned 109.2 mm.

Therefore, it's narrower than average, which implies the platform where the feet land is not the biggest one out there. Still, we didn't feel unstable or anything like that.

The Kawhi IV has a snug fit that hugged our feet comfortably during our wear tests, and its lateral support made sure everything was in the right place.

The midsole followed the same idea in the heel, as it was also narrower than average.

Even though it doesn't look like it because of the shoe's design, trust our caliper, it returned 88.5 mm!

Once again, we want to clarify that, despite not being as spacious as other models, the Kawhi IV didn't feel unstable in our landings or anything like that.

After such a good result on our breathability test, we didn't know what to expect from the durability one. Please, Dremel, have mercy!

After 12 seconds of drilling, the tool couldn't even open up a hole in the upper.

We were pretty happy with this result, as this New Balance model uses a pretty breathable material. We could see the light shine through it, so the fact that the mesh didn't end up all meshed up (yeah, it's one of our favorite puns... we can't help it) is already really good news.

If we compare the Kawhi IV's result (left) with the Precision 6's (right) on this same test, it might be easier to understand why we feel pretty satisfied. As you can see, the latter is absolutely destroyed. The Dremel went through the multiple layers of the shoe, so we could only give it a 1/5 on our toebox durability test. Nevertheless, even though the New Balance pair got damaged, the tool didn't manage to open it all up.

Consequently, we've decided to give the Kawhi IV a 3/5 on our toebox durability test.

We moved the Dremel all the way to the back to check this shoe's heel padding durability.

The test lasted 4 seconds, and the tool was rolling at 5K RPM and with 3.2N of force. As you can see, some of the material got such in the Dremel, which made us fear the worst. Nevertheless, when we put it aside and had full access to the dent, we were once again pretty happy.

Yeah, it doesn't look good, but it doesn't look bad either! The tool didn't manage to destroy the thick heel padding completely. Consequently, we've decided to give it a 3/5 on our heel padding durability test.

The Reebok Answer DMX (on the right) wasn't as lucky. As you can see, the Dremel dug into its heel padding just like a dog looking for a bone! That's why we couldn't give it a score higher than a 1/5 on this same test.

We used our durometer to see how hard the Kawhi IV's outsole is.

At 86.0 HC, it's definitely harder than average. Just not so much as to leave traction on a secondary level and just prioritize durability, but we do believe it should be more resistant than average.

Still, our bet is that it'll most likely offer a healthy mix between grip and durability.

Our Dremel had one last chance to prove how tough it is. This time at 10K RPM and with the same 3.2N of force, we turned on the tool for 22 seconds to check this New Balance's outsole durability.

The rubber compound resisted pretty well, and it ended up with a minimal dent of 0.8 mm. This lower-than-average result was fantastic, and we just couldn't wait to see what else the Kawhi IV had in store for us!

After verifying how durable the outsole of this New Balance pair is, we thought the brand wouldn't go for a massive piece of rubber. This would only increase the shoe's overall weight after all, and the material used is already durable enough to withstand the court's abrasion on its own!

At 5.1 mm, our caliper indicated this shoe's outsole is thicker than average, but not too much. Don't get us wrong, we do not think this is the wrong call by the brand. Nevertheless, personally, we would have gone for a thinner outsole to reduce the overall weight of this hooper.

Our caliper returned 5.7 mm when we measured this shoe's insole thickness.

It's bigger than average, which just levels up this NB's overall comfort levels. This added, to its soft foam, makes the shoe really plush and nice to play in.

The best part is that the lengthy shank didn't let us sink in, as it offered some extra energy to our steps so we could push ourselves back up in every toe-off.

Is that a removable insole? Yes, it is! Yahoo!

As usual, this means you can use your own orthotics if needed! Just take into account that this New Balance's insole is pretty padded, so if you go for a thinner one, the comfort levels might go down.

No reflective elements around! But it's not like we felt this model needed them. It's better to play indoors after all, and there's always light in the gym.

A super padded tongue just added more comfort to an already heaven-like shoe!

Our caliper returned 14.9 mm, which is way more than average. And even though we absolutely love the protection this brought to our instep, we think this pair might've benefited from a thinner tongue.

Yeah, this means there's no lace bite and no hot spots, and that's great! But it's already a pretty heavy shoe on the scale, so why not save some weight here?

A two-sided semi-gusseted tongue was the cherry on top for this hooper's wonderful foot containment and lockdown feel!

Also, even though the eyelets might look a little bit fragile, their structure is reinforced inside, which we really appreciated! The only drawback here is that we would have appreciated an extra eyelet at the top for the shoe to fully embrace our ankles.

Yeah, we know we say this a lot. But come on, it does make a difference! If you feel the same, we believe you should check out our lacing guide and go for a runner's knot to keep your feet tightly safe!

The Kawhi IV doesn't have any kind of heel tab.

Due to all the padding, the stiff structure, and the semi-gusseted tongue, we sure would've appreciated one to put the shoe on!