The Li-Ning Yushuai 18 Basketball Shoe

Here we are again, we’re hoping you’re having a great day ;-)

This moment, we will be talking about one of the trending shoes right now that doesn’t belong to the top 3 shoe producers in the market today. We present you the, Yushuai 18 of the Li-Ning Company Limited.

Li-Ning Company Limited is one of the leading sports brand companies in China, mainly operating professional and leisure footwear, apparel, equipment and accessories under the Li-Ning brand.

For the Yushuai 18, the low top version has just released, by the way.

For the regular version, there's a huge variety of different colors that you can go for. Some really clean designs.

Anyways, I'll tell you right now, this is another one of those shoes that changed a lot compared to how they wore in the very beginning.

Performance wise, at first this shoe fell stiff. Stiff because of the relatively cheap material I think. You can have a better look at this when you visit your local Malls and have the chance to feel this, not because of the cushion. I mean the cushion set up is a delicious one with full-length boom. It is very bouncy actually. You get safe landings to go with a nice push on feet, like it's pretty stacked up underneath. But yeah, this upper felt really plasticky, no softness whatsoever in the toe box area. Well maybe because the shoe is brand new after all. I even felt some pinching near the exterior of my forefoot on both shoes. That only lasted about 20 to 30 minutes though, however, once I started playing, the discomfort quickly went away and I couldn't notice anything as such. The shoe really needs a break in, I think, and because it is thin, breathability is great.

This shoe is fairly lightweight. It only weighs 390 grams for my size and I’m ten and a half.

Traction, now this aspect was great from the start. I never really had any issues with the grip on clean or dusty courts, and because of the minimal dust pickup, it remains to be squeaky and promising, consistent hard stops for sure, you can perform your crossovers anytime you want if you know how to ;-)

I still haven't used these outdoors, but based on how the rubber feels in hand, it should be adorable and great against rough court conditions.

With the fit, nothing too special here. I just went true to size, and for most people you can go with your normal size in most other sneakers. If we talk about how it hug your foot, it’s about average, it's not too tight or narrow, but like I said, you just have to break it in in a minute or so, to have it greatly fit in your foot. Give it a good solid few hours. After a couple of long sessions, trust me, you'll have a totally different feeling, and with that said, it's still a pretty rigid upper, so stability and lateral containment might be a challenge for some, especially with additional hard plastic wrapping up the heel.

Ankle support is about average. Interior padding really sucks to be honest. It's really minimal back there.

I just found it a little sad that the Yushuai line used to be their most popular line that holds the highest standard. It's really been overshadowed by the Sonic Team recently. I mean, the Sonic Team are amazing. These Yushuai might not be so popular anymore, but if you only care about good performance, this is a great Shoe.

My conclusion is that the Yushuai 18 is an excellent performer. Traction and cushion have always been good for me. Material for me, is bad at first, but I was able to break them in fairly quickly.

Once you get used to it, there was no pinching or any type of discomfort. My movements felt smooth, and this is a lightweight, high-top, great looking shoe that I would strongly recommend.

I guess it all comes down to the price factor, because performance is top notch. Please feel free to share your thoughts on the Yushuai 18 down in the comments.

If you've been playing in these, let me know if you had a similar or different experience.

Thanks so much guys.

Cheerio!