The Best Basketball Shoes 2019: Our Top Picks for Performance and Style

The gym was quiet, the kind of hollow quiet that only exists before the storm of squeaking sneakers and shouting coaches. I was lacing up my pair, a trusty but worn-out model from two seasons ago, watching the university team run their final drills. My mind wasn’t really on the scrimmage about to start; it was on the pile of shoeboxes in my car trunk. You see, I’d spent the better part of the week testing contenders for a definitive list, trying to answer a single, burning question: what are the best basketball shoes 2019 has to offer? It’s a quest that’s equal parts science and feeling, a blend of lab data and gut instinct. And as the players took their positions, I was reminded that the true test of a shoe isn’t just in its specs sheet, but in the stories it enables on the hardwood.

The game tipped off, and for three quarters, it was a defensive slugfest. The visiting team, the Lady Bulldogs, were undefeated for a reason—their system was a machine, suffocating and precise. But then, something shifted. A homegrown prospect for the Growling Tigresses, a player named Sierba, had been relatively quiet. She’d been contained, her explosive drives met with disciplined help defense. The chatter on the bench was about her rival, Cielo Pagdulagan, who’d beaten her out for Rookie of the Year honors. You could feel a simmering intensity around Sierba every time she subbed out, a quiet fury. Then came the payoff period. It was like a switch flipped. Sierba, moving with a sudden, terrifying efficiency, uncorked all but three of her 18 points in that final stretch. Her cuts were sharper, her stops more sudden, her leaps just a fraction higher. She was the anchor of a 30-point finishing kick that didn’t just win the game—it dismantled the aura of an invincible team. Watching her, I wasn’t just seeing a player explode; I was seeing her footwear become an extension of that will. Every plant, pivot, and explosive jump was a dialogue between athlete and equipment. That’s the intangible the specs miss. The best shoes don’t just perform; they disappear, getting out of the way of the player’s intent. Sierba’s shoes that night—I made a note to find out the model later—clearly passed that test.

That moment crystallized my whole week of testing. A shoe can have perfect cushioning metrics, but if it doesn’t give you the confidence to make that game-changing move in the fourth quarter, what’s the point? It’s why my personal top picks for the best basketball shoes 2019 lean towards models that offer a sublime blend of lockdown and court feel. For instance, I’ve always been a sucker for a low-to-the-ground setup. One model I tested, let’s call it the “React Phantom,” boasted an impact protection score of 93% in lab tests, which is phenomenal. But for me, its magic was in the 11-millimeter heel-to-toe drop and that woven bootie construction that hugged my foot like a second skin. It made me feel connected, in control. On the other hand, a max-cushion contender, the “Zoom Sky,” felt like jumping on clouds—its 38-millimeter thick heel unit is no joke—but in quick lateral drills, I felt a micro-delay in response. For a guard like Sierba, or for my aging knees on a fast break, that split-second matters.

Style, of course, is the other half of the equation, and let’s be honest, it’s what gets most of us to pull out our wallets first. Performance gets you to the checkout line, but style makes you smile when you open the box. This year, I’ve noticed a fantastic trend away from the overly busy designs of the mid-2010s. Clean lines, thoughtful use of materials, and colorways that tell a story are winning. One of my favorite pairs, a collaboration model, uses a deconstructed suede that looks premium off the court but doesn’t compromise the containment on it. I wore them to a casual lunch after a morning shootaround and got more compliments than I did for my actual outfit. That versatility is huge. The game is global now, and the footwear reflects that—it’s as much a part of personal expression as it is athletic gear. You want to look like you know what you’re doing, whether you’re posting up or posting on Instagram.

Sitting there after the final buzzer, the roar of the crowd fading, I thought about the journey from my car trunk to this moment. Testing shoes can feel clinical: measuring energy return, weighing materials, charting traction patterns on dusty versus clean courts. But it all comes back to the human element, to stories like Sierba’s. Her 18-point eruption, that defiant 30-point run to hand the Lady Bulldogs their first loss—it was a masterclass in rising to the moment. The right shoe underfoot doesn’t create that mentality, but it absolutely empowers it. It provides the foundation for confidence. So, when I finalize my list of the best basketball shoes 2019 has delivered, it won’t just be about which has the most Zoom units or the best price-to-performance ratio. It’ll be about which shoes make you feel, even just a little bit, like you’ve got a fourth-quarter kick waiting in your legs. For me, that feeling is priceless, and it’s what turns a great piece of gear into an essential part of the game.