I Played Basketball in K-Mart Sneakers and Lived to Talk About It

Wear-testing the K-Mart Catapult Commander Hi-Top Basketball Shoe.

1.

by Nick Grant

I had it pretty good growing up. I’m not afraid to admit that. My family was by no means rich, but my parents tried to show us that if we did the right things and put ourselves in good positions to succeed, the opportunity for rewards was much greater. And the rewards were the basketball cards, the jerseys, and the Air Jordan sneakers I wanted. 

I was always grateful and never took what I received for granted. Sure, I wanted people to notice the stunt I was trying to perform, but I never deliberately tried to belittle anyone for not having what I did. Because, as I’m sure you’ve unfortunately witnessed – especially in the 21st century – there are some with that ultra-privileged mind frame that feel like they deserve everything they want, even without putting in the work to get it. Those are the same type of people who mock those who can’t materialistically flaunt their worth or that pretentiously stick their nose up at non-name brand items. 

So, the performance test for K-Mart’s Catapult Commander Hi-Top Basketball Shoe had duality. I wanted to test the support, cushion and strength of the shoe’s fabrics, but I also wanted to test the moral fabric of others. They’ve all seen knock-off Jordans and have probably dismissed them as just that. But I was also testing myself, to a degree, which I came to understand on a subconscious level. 

2.

Walking into my regular gym on Saturday morning felt a little different. Even more different than when I would show up ready to ball in Converse All-Stars or Rick Owens Island Dunks. I had a different level of nervousness then I had before, but it wasn’t necessarily because of the shoes’ performance. It was mainly because I thought I had a reputation to uphold, merely positioned on looking like a legit ball player. Let alone actually being one. Don’t get it twisted, though. I may a little older, but they know I played D1 ball and that I can still get it going. Takes me a little longer, but they know.

So, I lace up the shoes for the first time in a game-like setting, following my review standards: no orthodics, no ankle braces, no extra support. The only “luxury” I give myself are my socks because my socks are my babies. Was it a coincidence I used Jordan Elite socks? No. No, it was not.

"I’m not calling for an immediate cosign on these, but I’m also not calling for an immediate beheading of them, either."

Initial thoughts are clearly defined: these don’t feel bad at all. They aren’t overly cushioned, but they aren’t Chucks either. I’m not calling for an immediate cosign on these, but I’m also not calling for an immediate beheading of them, either. 

On the looks side, I’m not sure if people assumed they were the Sport Blue Air Jordan 3s or they didn’t care, but no one even batted an eye when I walked out on the court for the first game. 

I’m not going to lie to you, I was shocked because I thought my self-consciousness could be sensed from a mile away. I wasn’t necessarily embarrassed; I was just ready for the barrage of “joning” to rain down upon me. Didn’t happen. My psyche is safe. For now.

Now to test the actual performance of the shoe. One thing I should have mentioned initially is that, when I tried them on, I was skeptical of the shape because, well, there isn’t a ton of it. They are your basic unstructured, straight-sided, round-ended shoe. And if you’re going to have a shoe that uses low-end synthetic leather, then there needs to be some sort of shape that helps hug the foot to offset stretching. This is one thing that two or three strong cuts exposed. They fit fine, initially, but the sides quickly began to give.The lack in shape plus amount of give of the leather did not make me feel safe. Since I like to think I am what I’ve coined a “power guard,” a lot of my action is done on strong cuts to the basket – whether I have the ball or not – so my movement is maximized by my ability to get by, around, or through my defender. That is why a Jordan XX9 or any of the recent bulkier shoes from LeBron’s series at Nike have done well for me. They’ve allowed me to get around the paint being as nimble or lumbering as I please. Decent traction would’ve stood out as a positive individually, but it probably contributed to a lot of the movement my foot was experiencing inside the shoe.

3.

When push comes to shove; I did not feel safe in these. Not having them laced as tight as they could possibly go could’ve played a part in this, but since I didn’t want to draw attention to myself, or what I was wearing, by tying them on a check, probably didn’t help. But even lacing them properly couldn’t salvage the issues I had. My foot moved around entirely too much for a shoe I was willingly wearing and I ended up rolling my ankle about three times in those few hours of playing. Not severely, but enough to notice. A simple tweak of the design at the forefoot base could’ve probably prevented any incidents, but this design is based off a shoe from 1988, a time when the shoe tech we have today wasn't even in its genesis. Which made me think: with what we know now and how shoes that were once athletics-based being retroed as lifestyle sneakers exclusively, should even the K-Marts of the world be thinking through how they market their sneakers?

Granted, I am not the target market. These are for the casual, 5-6 times a year basketball player who is shooting with their child in the driveway. But by calling this a “basketball shoe,” as it clearly marks on the box, you are covering a wide range. So why market these as a performance shoe over a lifestyle shoe to gain ground on the market that is convoluted with perfectly capable Jordans, Nikes, adidas, and the like? Why try to infiltrate the performance market by imitating the blueprint of a shoe that hasn’t propagated itself as a performance shoe in a decade? I’m sure the price of the shoe wouldn’t make most of you think twice, but when you are deliberately trying to draw attention to yourself by mimicking one of the more popular sneaker silhouettes of the 20th and 21st centuries, someone is bound to question your intentions and whether you’ve truly exercised all resources to getting all potential out of the shoe and potentially stealing some market share. 

Instead, they’re selling a performance shoe that doesn’t necessarily perform and, frankly, should scare the crap out of anyone hoping to move more than forward and backward. If you’re going to buy this shoe, buy it because you don’t care what people think when you’re wearing them casually, performing a stunt confidently in a lifestyle sneaker that may or may not be taken for a classic retro.

As for the social experiment aspect of this test; no one ever made a mention of them. The only person who had some sort of issue with me wearing them was me. The overt awareness I had the entirety of the pick-up game, expecting the repercussions I thought would come with wearing Jordan knock-offs wasn’t a projection onto my pick-up mates; it was a confirmation of the shallow, materialistic world I’ve created in my mind that I wish I hadn’t.

Nick Grant is a freelance writer and is willing to give ANY sneaker a performance review. You can follow him on Twitter here.