Adidas Dame 7 Performance Review

This will be my first performance review on the website of a sneaker that was not gifted to me, but in fact one that I purchased with my own money.

Moreover, those that know me know that I am a huge Dame fan, and that the Dame sneaker line is my favourite basketball sneaker line.

It’s fortunate, then, that the Three Stripes delivered a great performance product with the Dame 7. Let’s get into the details:

Traction:

The traction of the Dame 7 is made up of a lightning-bolt style traction pattern, which breaks apart in some sections into little “7s”. The colourway tested uses solid rubber all around, with the rubber being one colour on the inside part of the outsole (the main portion of the traction), with a marbled rubber bordering this around the outside of the outsole.

I found the traction to work well both indoors and outdoors. The rubber is hard enough to where it is durable and does not show any noticeable signs of wear with outdoor use. You actually get quite a hard stop from the Dame 7 on the asphalt “blacktop” style court. The grooves are widely-spaced, which means debris from an outdoor court does not get caught easily, however they are fairly shallow, which could mean it wears out more quickly (subject to outdoor ONLY play).

Indoors, I had no issues with the traction. There is a very minor squeak from the outsole on the hardwood, but for the most part it’s a pretty silent traction pattern. Over time, the outsole can tend to pick up dust, but it’s a very light, minor wipe and you’re good to go. The advantage of the shallow, wide grooves is that it’s very easy to clear away any dust with that quick wipe.

Cushion:

The Dame 7 comes with Lightstrike foam cushion, the same as the Dame 6.

Unlike many people, I actually really like Lightstrike. I felt like the Lightstrike on the Dame 6 (the first and only time I had used it before testing these 7s) was plush, bouncy, pillow-y, springy, marshmallow-y — all the things I love to feel in my cushion. I believe a lot of the consternation from consumers was that the Lightstrike was not durable, and “bottomed-out” quickly (bottoming-out being where the air-pockets within the foam are burst and the foam loses it’s plushness and becomes more “dead” feeling). I wear a lot of different sneakers frequently, so I didn’t experience this personally.

Upon first wear of the Dame 7, I was admittedly disappointed with the cushion.

It felt like Adidas thinned out the Lightstrike foam quite a bit, especially at the forefoot, and had geared the sneaker more towards court-feel and responsiveness. It might look like there is a lot of Lightstrike, even as much as its predecessor, but you do sit quite a bit within that foam midsole (which is great for support, which we’ll get to later).

What I did, though, was add an aftermarket insole for a little bit of added cushion and step-in comfort. Once I did this, I found the cushion to be suitable for my liking. While this particular iteration of Lightstrike is not the most stand-out foam cushion on the market, it’s still definitely decent on a US$110 sneaker.

I must admit that the heel was still plush and offered plenty of impact protection upon heel strikes.

Fit:

The Dame 7 certainly fixed some of the issues with the fit that plagued the Dame 6.

While the Dame 6 was very forgiving for wide-footers, there was a fair amount of dead-space in the toe-box, and there was an almost excessive amount of additional length at the end of the toe (even for me as someone that likes a bit of extra length at the end of the sneaker).

The Dame 7 is still wide-footer friendly, while cutting down how much length there is at the end of the toe, and moreover eliminating some of the volume of the toe-box.

Because they are wide-foot friendly though, most people will want to consider going down at least half a size. I was still able to add an aftermarket insole and have no issues, so considering that, if you like a super snug fit, or have a really narrow foot, you may want to go down a full size. But my recommendation would be down a half size, and you should be good to go.

Support:

No issues here with the support of the Dame 7.

I found the Dame 7 to be an extremely supportive sneaker.

Support comes from all the usual places. You have a wide forefoot base, TPU mid-foot torsional bar, you sit within the foam midsole, there is an internal heel counter, and you get great lockdown from the cable lace loops.

Much has been made on Instagram about the fact that Damian Lillard’s player editions of the Dame 7 have traditional lace eyelets, rather than the cable loops. I actually found the lace loops to do a fantastic job of helping to draw my heel back into the back of the sneaker, while helping the laces make me feel locked-in and secure.

Materials:

This is also an area in which the 7s improved from the Dame 6s.

The upper is just basic textiles and synthetics, however, the mesh materials feel much more premium and much closer to a true knit. The synthetic overlays actually feel nice to the touch and are exponentially nicer than anything on the Dame 6 (and even Dame 5).

Materials are not that important to me, in fact, they are my least important category. For a performance sneaker, so long as they do the job of keeping my foot where it needs to be, I’m pretty happy with them. However, it is nice to see some higher-quality materials on a Dame sneaker, for the first time since the Dame 4s.

That takes care of it for my thoughts on the performance of the Adidas Dame 7.

If you’re someone that likes the look of them and is thinking about getting a pair, I absolutely recommend it. They are a lot of fun to play in. Just be aware of the sizing.

Keep an eye out for the video review coming, I will link it here in the written review when it’s ready.

Thanks for reading!

~ Dan aka Hoops Sneakers.

Price:

The Adidas Dame 7 retails for US$110 (AU$200)

Weight:

The Adidas Dame 7 in a men’s size US 11 weighs 469 grams (16.5 ounces)

Score:

I give the Adidas Dame 7 a score of 4.7/5 (taking into account the cushion personally, and the fit more broadly).