did you break them in? bulky with the ankle height or the paneling/materials?
I didn't break them in. They were fresh out the box, that could be it but it wasn't the fit or comfort that bothered me. They fit well, no pinching or discomfort and felt good with the full length zoom. It was the damn shape of the shoe and all of the excess design material. The ankle height was much higher than I usually play with and they just felt clunky and heavy. The traction pattern looks more like of an outdoor shoe and didn't bite the floor and was not squeaking the floor either like I'm used to. Hard to explain, but like the leather is super thick (not a bad thing quality wise) but I definitely felt more material and weight. Like the toebox did not crease. Literally after 4 quarters, the toe box i'm sure flexed, but when i took them off after the game there was not a single crease on the leather toebox area. The shoe feels kind of like a boot lol. wide and high.
I'm hoping the carpe diems perform better as it is a low cut shoe and is lighter with less material than the 1s. I never had issues playing with the real og del sols or the olympic pair when they first came out so I'm assuming it should perform the same as it did back then which was pretty good.
For reference my go to hoop pairs are: kobe 9 elite low and kobe 11 EM low. Best traction kobe 9 hands down. Best fit and upper is the kobe 11 EM low. I don't have any of those pairs anymore as I sold them. Technically I should of just stuck to one of those two pairs, but the carpe diems look so good and they are an og colorway.
EDIT: It's crazy how the carpe diems if they were limited, would probably be the most coveted pair of the 4s. Like literally prior to the retro, the ogs were selling for stupid bucks and people who held on to them had their stock plummeted. I'm sure a lot of people, including myself would kill for a fresh pair of carpe diems at retail, but for some reason we are all on the sidelines waiting for it to drop to like $100 range which is wild to me. Definitely a good thing, but waiting it out is the hardest part.