Tennis shoe for Men review: K-Swiss Bigshot II 

“Bigshot Who?” 3 stars

This is the newest generation of the K-Swiss Bigshot tennis shoe line although this shoe feels completely different from the original Bigshot. The Bigshot II feels like an in-between of the Adidas Barricade tennis shoes and the original Bigshot. The cushioning design within the shoe feels like the original Bigshot, although less cushioning, but the way that the shoe fits around your foot feels, and even looks, like a Adidas Barricade. The purpose of this tennis shoe is to be more lightweight and quicker on the court than the original Bigshot. I feel that K-Swiss Bigshot II did accomplish these two goals but at the expense of some of the qualities that made the original Bigshots so good. The rest of this review will evaluate the Bigshot II tennis shoe based on four main components: comfort, foot support, durability and performance.

The comfort of the K-Swiss Bigshot II tennis shoes is one of the strengths of the shoes. They are ready to go right out of the box as they are very flexible and “soft” feeling. The shoe is on the side of wide width tennis shoes compared to others leaving you with some extra comfort room in the toe. The shoe is definitely narrower than its predecessor by quite a bit, but I found that to make the shoe more comfortable as I do not have a wide foot. The cushioning of the shoe feels pretty much the same to that of its predecessor making it a very comfortable feel around your foot and heel. In an attempt to make the shoe lighter, I can tell that there is slightly less cushioning in the shoe and also less stability.

The K-Swiss Bigshot II feels very stable when you first put it on and for the first couple f times out on the court. After that, though, I noticed that the shoe and its stability weakened and it continued to become weaker and weaker at the sides of the shoe so that there was not much lateral support which is so vital in tennis. The arch is designed to be minimal and low to the ground to add quickness and agility. I have a medium arch to my foot and found the arch support of the tennis shoes is very good. Besides the fact that the sides of the shoe become weak causing my feet to be hanging off the side of the bottoms of the shoe, my feet felt secure in that my heel never felt like it would slip out and my forefoot did not slip around as much as they did in the original Bigshots since this is a narrower shoe.

The original Bigshots are not the most durable shoe to begin with and since the K-Swiss Bigshot IIs are more kind of lightweight tennis shoes, they are even less durable than their predecessor. As I mentioned before the sides of the shoe do not hold up for very long and the outsoles wear out faster as well. These shoes lasted me two weeks shorter than the originals so I wore through the Bigshot IIs in just under two months. The upside is that this shoe is very well protected against toe drag and it is one of the lightest tennis shoes to come with a six month outsole guarantee.

I must say that I was a little disappointed with the overall performance of the K-Swiss Bigshot IIs. I really like the original Bigshots so for this shoe to feel so much different is probably what disappointed me the most. I did feel lighter and quicker on the court with the Bigshot IIs so K-Swiss was able to accomplish that aspect. I still like the original Bigshots better but if you like the K-Swiss feel and are looking for something that is lighter and faster on the court then the Bigshot IIs are a good option.

Micah Groom