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Sometimes I wish I wasn’t such a big Curry fan. While my practical side says no, my fandom side says yes and I always end up giving in to the latter. The next time I have this internal power struggle, I’ll read this review to remind myself which side I should listen to when it comes to buying shoes.

Here’s a link to the Curry 4 Mid Review

Pros: traction, softer synthetic materials than the mid, stability, containment

Cons: heel slip, boring cushioning, sculpted midsole is the only support structure

Best for: light quick guard that enjoys lows and wants full mobility. Curry fans that want a casual shoe.

Buying advice: aside from the Nothing but Nets colorway, these are not moving and already coupon eligible. $95 or less is fair (I paid $96), bottom is around $65-55

Weight:

Exact same weight as the mid at 12.5 ounces.

Traction:

Same as the Mid which is a good thing. I had no issues with traction in the mids or lows and find these to be much better than the Curry 3 and 1. For all Curry 4’s, I suggest staying away from the translucent pairs if you want optimal performance. I messed around in my pair of More Dimes and found the solid to work much better with far less wiping. As good as the Curry 4 traction is, the Curry 2 still reigns supreme but at least the gap closed a bit.

Cushioning:

In my review of the Mid, I noted that the designer Kort Neumann stated that the tooling was EVA which meant the cushioning was EVA. Low and behold UA changed their description on the mid and have FINALLY come clean about the cushioning. Since I’m the only one who noticed this or bothered to state this, I’m going to take credit for the change. If you don’t care it’s EVA, great, I only called this out because I sniffed BS and I thought consumers should know. Am I disappointed in UA? Yes of course I am but it’s nothing new in the world of sneakers.

In the short term, EVA works and feels fine but it’s proven to compress quickly and once it does, that cushioning is done. Thanks to Niketalk for the quick and clear synopsis. (If you aren’t looking at forums like NT and only listening to “reviewers” for buying advice, you’re missing out on a lot of good information)

EVA is the least expensive midsole material & is commonly found in entry level shoes (Think Nike Benassi Swoosh Slides, those are EVA). The reason it’s so inexpensive to make is because the Midsole is cut & shaped directly from flat sheets of EVA Foam. So while the PRO for Nike would be it doesn’t cost them must to make, the CON would be EVA compresses & becomes flat over time due to the air trapped within the foam being squeezed out. Once the EVA Foam is compressed, it will never return to its original shape & it will no longer provide cushioning unfortunately. To add to the downside EVA Foam compresses faster then ANY OTHER Midsole Material.

It shouldn’t matter to sneakerheads since a pair of shoes per month or weeks or days is normal but to the regular shopper who buys once a year or two, it should.

Overall, just as I said with with mid, the cushioning feels okay albeit boring but don’t expect it to last as the EVUA gets compressed.

Fit:

I suggest going half a size up from your true size so in this case I got an 11.5 and these fit snug but were just the right length. I felt these fit better around the foot than the 11.5 mid but some heel slip was all she wrote for this pair. I tried several hours hoping it would break in but it never got any better. As I’ve said in several of my low top reviews I need the laces to pull my heel down and back but these only pull my heel down since the eyelets aren’t set far enough back for me. There are no hidden straps pulling my foot backward either like other lows I’ve tried in the past.

There are heel pillows in the ankle collar but it doesn’t keep my foot locked in because, yes you guessed it, nothing is pulling my heel back. Also not helping was the lack of padding to learn my foot and heel to lock me in.

Look at the difference between the Kobe and the Curry 4. If you’re ankle doesn’t fully fill the ankle collar you’re pretty much SOL.

Lastly, the knit surrounding the entire ankle is stretchy so it isn’t holding my ankle and heel in place. Once again, one more eyelet would have helped a lot in remedying the heel slip to help tighten the fit around the ankle.

Overall, the fit was decent but the heel slip was annoying and I have plenty of other lows that don’t have this issue. I’m going to start skipping even numbered Curry Lows because I haven’t had fit issues with the 1 or 3 but had terrible heel slip with the 2 and now the 4.

Materials:

UA used less synthetic on the exterior and more knit (percentage wise at least) which made the low more comfortable than the mid. It feels softer and didn’t require any break in. There are some new underlays in the low which improved the fit but it probably made the the low weigh the same as the mid.

If this type of underlay was used on the mid, the fit would have been a lot more adaptive. Oh well.

Materials feel nice at least.

Support and stability

Since this is a low, support comes from the sculpted midsole, fit, and heel counter. Since I had heel slip, I can’t say support is great based on the usually criteria for lows.

UA removed the tiny internal heel counter that was on the Mid altogether. Not sure why

Thankfully, the stability on the Curry 4 is great so the stability helps even out the lack of support features support.

Overall, support is very minimal but stability is excellent. If you ever wanted to ball in Nike Free’s this might be the shoe for you.

Containment

Pretty close to the containment of the mid but the more flexible materials allowed a little more give. The Speedplate still does its job so I had no issues with the containment since it is still great.

Conclusion

I can’t say I really love the Curry 4 Low or Mid since I had some kind of issue with the fit in both. After a lot of trial and error plus sock experiments, the Mid worked the best for me but still isn’t a shoe I get excited about aside from looking at it. I’ve already passed on two of the colorways so you really know I’m not into the Curry 4. At least they look good and are cozy sitting in my closet.

On the court, the Curry 4 Low doesn’t really do anything better than the mid, plus I had some heel slip. If you like Steph, just buy the shoe since you won’t regret buying a shoe as a fan. If you’re not a fan and you really need a low top, there are plenty of other shoes that do things better than the Curry 4 Low and are similarly priced or cheaper.

Although things can change based on how other shoes perform throughout the year, I’m going to put the Curry 4 on the third team for the time being.

Pic Courtesy of the Undefeated

Not quite the way I wanted to start the New Year but better to be balling in shoes I don’t like than not playing at all. Onto the next…