Since receiving the Wilson KAOS 3.0’s, I have been battle testing them for a while now and I have to hand it to Wilson. The KAOS 3.0’s are a great choice for a tennis shoe that checks a lot of the boxes in the tennis shoe department.
Tennis shoes are a very personal journey, so these are my impressions of this shoe.
First, let me give you a little background on the KAOS family of tennis shoes. If you haven’t yet, you can read up on my tennis shoe review of the first iteration of the KAOS tennis shoe.
The KAOS tennis shoes were designed for speed and agility; lightweight and highly flexible. These shoes offer stability and plenty of support for the modern day tennis player, grinding at the baseline.
That all being said, the KAOS 3.0’s are no different from their predecessors. Lightweight, flexible, and supportive.
Wilson KAOS 3.0 Tennis Shoe Review
While most shoes nowadays come ready to wear right out of the box, the KAOS 3.0’s did require a little break-in, for me, before feeling 100% comfortable in them.
The biggest difference from the KAOS 1’ and 3’s is that the tongue was sewn into a bootie; whereas the 3’s had the traditional shoe construction. The tongue is very thin, virtually no padding. While that isn’t really a deciding factor, I did notice that the thinness of the tongue made it a little more rigid and felt that it was digging into my lower shin/front ankle.
The sole of the tennis shoe was very nicely put together with some impressive looking treads. I did like that I had all the grip I needed on court. I tend to slide a little bit when I play; the Wilson KAOS 3.0’s prevented that from happening!
As far as how comfortable this tennis shoe is, I would highly rate it for comfort and room. My feet tend to fit snuggly in tennis shoes (until they break in) but in the KAOS 3.0’s definitely made my feet feel comfortable.
The KAOS 3.0 tennis shoe comes in weighing in a very lightweight 13.4 ounces (for a size men’s 10.5US or 44EU), comparatively, the shoes that Rafael Nadal wears comes in at 15.6 ounces. While that may not seem like a lot of weight, you can definitely feel the extra weight on your feet.
KAOS 3.0 Dislikes
The things that I didn’t particularly like about this tennis shoe are fairly limited.
I found the tennis shoe to not have quite the breathability as some of its competition. My feet felt a little stuffy on the hotter days I was playing. The mesh on the upper didn’t have the ventilation that I like.
After break-in fit; out of the box the KAOS 3.0’s felt amazing to wear. After the shoes broke in, I started to feel a couple of things. First, I felt like my heel was coming out of the shoe when I would push off to make a move. My foot never came out of the shoe but it did feel loose and that it could slip out. Secondly, again after break in, when I would stop my big toe would jam and did cause some pain.
Final Thoughts
All in all, I found the Wilson KAOS 3.0’s to be a great option for the tennis courts. Even though there were a couple of things that weren’t great, the weight and support I got from the tennis shoes were a big plus. For players who are looking for a lightweight tennis shoe, this could very well be the best choice for you.
I cannot comment on the durability of the Wilson KAOS 3.0, though so far they seem to be holding up really well!
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