Sorry for the long period of radio silence on the blog. It’s been a very busy year and lots of exciting things have happened. My first trip to the US Open was an incredible experience and I made some amazing connections. If you’ve followed my socials, you may have seen me meeting Noah from Xenon Paddle.
We got talking over a couple of days and I was very aware of his shoes from the Foot Doctor Zach YouTube channel. I asked him to get me a pair of UK size 10 so I could buy a pair and get them on foot. Noah met me at my AirBnB and showed me the prototype of an upcoming revision (launched now) and gave me the pair I’d ordered. As he put it, he’s never seen anyone so into performance shoes bar Zach!
I’ve waited a while to review these shoes (I got them in mid April) as their USP is durability. The Xenon Xtreme V2 are designed for platform tennis, aka the racket sport where shoes go to die. The court surface is aluminium planks with a gritty, non slip, surface so it’s playable in cold, wet and icy weather. This level of abrasion is why many players used to take old tennis shoes and finally kill them off with playing platform. Until Noah came along and created the answer.
The Xtreme range has been a labour of love for Noah. He’s enlisted Zach to help with some aspects, he tried plenty of iterations and made some really interesting decisions. Sharing his story, it was interesting that being small actually can help with innovation and having a slightly higher cost. If you are selling a few thousand or ten’s of thousands of shoes, a few cents here or there doesn’t scale massively over the performance benefits. But you sell 10’s of million pairs like a big brand, a few cents is millions leaking out the bottom line.
He made some really interesting decisions on the shoes. The biggest challenges to longevity in shoes come in three areas in my experience: outsole tread, mid sole cushion compression and upper damage from dragging/sliding. The Xtreme v2 attacks the first from a unique angle, is supported by the second and uses more conventional solutions for the third.
Taking in reverse order, the uppers have a durable rubber perimeter to the upper that takes so much punishment. I’ve barely put any wear on this part in five months of solid use for almost every court session: I’m not a big dragger or slider but there’s not the wear of the Skechers Viper Court Pro v1 where the toe box bends (fixed on their V2). They don’t feel clunky which some durable uppers can (some Adidas Barricades from around the 6 to 8 series spring to mind).
The lack of heaviness is also managed by the supercritical nitrogen mid sole: this tech is commonly seen in performance running shoes that are aimed at distance running. Those high performance marathon race day shoes with carbon fibre plates and thick cushioning often use this type of foam. I’ve experienced this in a few shoes that I run in and it has a great balance of light weight, cushioning and longevity.
The most critical part (pardon the pun) of this midsole decision is that it allows the outsole to be dramatically thicker than normal with a more durable compound. For platform, its key as the sandpaper on aluminium surface will chew up softer or thinner treads. For other sports, this equates to extreme durability without sacrificing on foot feel or heaviness. High wear areas are 4.5mm thick with low wear 3mm. This graduated tread depth means that it should wear relatively evenly compared to other shoes with a more uniform tread depth.
What do they feel like on? Pretty much like any other court shoe and much less heavy than they weigh on the scales. There’s no discernible performance trade off from similar shoes that aren’t driven by super light weight. Compared to the Lacoste shoes I was part of the creation of, they are a little heavier but not so that I won’t compete in the Xenon’s in a big event. More importantly, I’ve never had a single issue with instability in the Xenon: no rolling, twisting ankles, feeling like I’m coming off the footbed. Nothing. I think that’s based on having some of the weight in the outsole more than normal. The shoe is so grounded by that little extra weight right where you are making contact. There’s a classic outrigger to tip you back but it’s never triggered when I’ve used these.
How is the durability? I’ve alluded to the upper showing barely any signs of wear and the outsole is equally robust. The outsole is extremely durable and has a small pimple structure initially. I had so many comments about how squeaky they were, which is normally an analog to grip in outsoles. Think of tyres squealing. The amazing thing is five months in, they are still squeaking and the main treads are unaltered for performance and appearance: they still seem thick and plenty of life left in them. Compared to my Lacoste’s where I’ve sent the ball of one foot bald inside three months, there is no appreciable wear on these under the ball of foot area. My traditional rear heel lateral wear is there but this is a non critical area for grip for me. So they seem to have at least twice the longevity of my favourites!
How could they improve the shoe? The one area that almost all shoe manufacturers cheap out on is insoles/sock liners. Why? Because often performance players rip it out and put something better in. Personally, I’m now using expensive custom orthotics to manage some foot and ankle issues I had and they are life/game changing. Even my favoured Pinnacle Powersteps I’ve had before are nothing on a custom: and i can get 14 Powersteps(!) for the price of one custom. Noah shared with me at the time and, as the v3 are now announced fully, I can reveal that he’s addressing that too. He’s using a ETPU sockliner: think Adidas boost but as an insole. That has no bearing for me but I know that it will have further positive impact on the shoe’s performance for many users.
Where’s the downside? Well, as a shoe, I can’t really find one. It’s light enough, super durable, it’s stable, secure and grippy: it even has bubble laces (a real shoe nerd thing: they just don’t untie by themselves!). If I’m being super critical (pun, again), the tongue slides to one side over time so could do with a little loop about three eyelets down. Guess what the v3 has: yep, Noah has fixed it again!
But there is a big one: they aren’t available in the UK or Europe so they aren’t easy to get hold of. You’ll need to get a friend in the States to order or use a forwarding service like myUS.com to get a pair over. They fit true to size and Noah knew exactly which size for me to have, although i could try a size down for safety. They come as standard with a wider toe box so this also makes buying blind a safer option for more foot types.
Without doubt, they live up to their claims, the longevity of the outsole is staggeringly good and all the simple changes add up to a great shoe. Moving away to something else in the future is going to be a tough ask: they shouldn’t wear out anytime soon at this rate. Thanks so much to Noah at Xenon Paddle to allowing me the chance to try and review these shoes.