Performance Review: Nike Zoom FP (Fun Police)

Nike Zoom Fun Police saw very little NBA court time last season despite having design characteristics from the late 90's classic Air Garnett III. Rashard Lewis gave them a shot, but soon reverted back to his season-favorite Hyperdunks. For such a great-looking shoe to get no playing time, there must be something seriously wrong with them, right?



At first glance, this shoe posesses some components for a great shoe: a beautiful design, a variety of sharp colorways, Zoom Air in the heel, and lightweight feel in your hands. But when I put them on and started shooting around, I experienced some interesting findings.



When I first put the shoes on, they simply felt awful. The upper was extremely stiff. The short, rigid foam tongue irritated my leg. The top of the toebox dug into my toes with every step. The only good points were its low-to-the-ground feel (similar to the Zoom Flight Club) and the heel's responsive Zoom Air unit. I almost took them off and put on my backup shoes, but I decided to stick with them and continue warming up.



Here's where it got weird. Just when the shoes started to loosen up a bit, I noticed the tongues had slid down considerably, so I pulled them back up. Five minutes later, they had slid down again. Maybe they weren't laced tightly enough... re-tighten and re-tie. Five minutes later, I found myself pulling them up again. I was really starting to see why nobody wears these shoes. After tugging at the tongues for the 5th time, I was thorougly frustrated and was ready to toss them aside. As I started to untie them, I noticed the tongue has a bunch of circular cutouts in it. Obviously, they're there for style and breathability, but I thought maybe I could use them to keep the tongue from sliding. I experimented with a few configurations and finally arrived at one that worked. The photo below illustrates threading the laces through the lowest holes in the tongue and finishing at the topmost eyelets. Problem remedied; tongue movement minimized.



It took a couple of games for the Zoom FP's to really break in. Once they did, they felt better, but I found performance to be lacking in some areas. While the leather column with vertical stitching should provide a good amount of stability on either side, the shoes are simply not cut high enough to make an impact on ankle support. The shoes aren't roll-prone, but lateral stability could stand to improve. Not only is there a lack of a decent outrigger to stabilize the shoe, but it also feels as though the shoes want to roll outwards towards the rear. This is most like due to the visible Zoom Air unit that probably gives a little too much cushioning and not enough stability; it almost feels as though the heel is cut more narrow than normal on the lateral side. As for the comfort, the upper's stiffness had greatly improved by the end of the night. The wandering tongue was no longer an issue thanks to threading the laces through them, but this is something that should've been solved by Nike during development and testing.



As for the positives, lockdown is actually quite good with assistance from the offset eyelet placement, and the mesh tongue provides good breathability. The midsole continued to perform well, providing great heel to toe transition, great heel cushioning, and very responsive forefoot performance. The outsole pattern would suggest subpar traction, but I encountered no problems on our well-maintained indoor court.



The Bottom Line: The Zoom FP will turn heads on the court, but leaves much to be desired performance-wise. After enduring a long break-in period and implementing make-shift tongue/lacing improvements, this shoe is decently comfortable but simply can't compete with the other models in the Nike Re-Fresh line.