Originally Posted by
an808caucASIAN
Great thread. This post in particular has me intrigued. For some reason, I am incredibly interested in PEs, but especially when this a modification of a shoe. Jordan cleats, for example. T21D: can you go a little more in depth with the differences? I can't quite see the pj on the rafas- it looks like a real air max unit to me. Thanks!
Originally Posted by T21D
To add some variety to this post other than basketball (which I love). Collecting PE's is a subculture in itself, but tennis is even more so. A brief summary w/ Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer is that their shoes are nowhere near the same as ther GR release other than the cw's. e.g. Rafa's gr version has max air on the back and seamless tongue. But in reality, his Max Air is PJ (paint jobbed- tennis nerd term) and he likes the SkateBoard thick tongue.
Obviously, Fred will have more details, by from what I know...
Both Rafa and Fed have customized kicks. Maybe they couldn't get used to the newer models, but for years, we've seen them wear old models but with the current-colorway of the new model.
For example... at the Australian Open 2009.
First off, a bit of background.
Rafa wore these in 2008... the Breathe Cage 2's.
He got his own line in 2009, called the CourtBallistec 1.3 and was supposed to wear them at the Australian Open 2009.
However, probably due to him not getting the fit just right, he opted to wear the Cage 2's, but modified with his AusOpen colorway... teal, volt, black, white.
As you can see, it's the Cage 2's, but in a different colorway, which was never available to the public.
White during the day and black for his night-matches.
Later that year, at the French Open 2009, he eventually switched to the Ballistec 1.3's.
Since then, he's been quite good with changing to the latest model, inline with the public release.
Even so, his PE's were still slightly different, with changes to the air bag, a bigger and longer tongue as well as different materials... probably to save weight as he doesn't need heavier rubber-compounds for the durability.
This is his PE CourtBallistec 2.3 at the US Open 2010
VS the GR... Notice the much-smaller tongue
In 2011, he wore the Ballistec 3.3's.
PE ~ Has the big tongue, but also notice the silver heel-area. The PE's used a soft material (probably to save weight and improve the fit), while the GR's used a plastic-heel-cup.
GR
Anyway, I'll talk about Fed's some other time...
