in my exp. the shoe weight makes no difference lol. unless you were wearing something as heavy as hiking boots thats when it counts, but all ball shoes weigh about the same, i guess the only difference is the placebo a light shoe would give you lol.
i'm weak af. when i put on my hyperdunks, i walk around for like 2 seconds, then i take them off. they feel horrible.
shoe weight definitely makes a difference for me.. it could all be mental, but that's still significant. All I know is I wouldn't want to run/sprint/"do plyometrics" in basketball shoes.. i'd rather do that in XC flats.. so if i'd rather "fly" in XC flats, why would I ever want to wear basketball shoes? ... especially since I don't actually play basketball anymore.
so that's why I have this problem with basketball shoes.. they have all of this extra support/protection/weight for playing basketball, which I don't play. If someone made a ~4-5 oz XC flat style shoe but, with a stronger sole for jumping, I think i'd be in heaven.
the lightest shoes I have right now are my NB 5000 v2 running shoes .. which I enjoyed jumping in until I hurt my heel. I kind of think jumping in those shoes was more risky than my XC flats because even thoug they have more heel protection (for running), it's this hard foam-like substance that I think shifted when I planted in my SLRVJ.. which caused some kind of damage to my "heel area'. Now it flares up slightly on occasion when jumping in my XC flats - but never to the initial extent when I injured it in my NB 5000 v2's. My XC flats are more like ~5 oz and have a strong rubber on the bottom, instead of that weird space-age foam material. I think it offers more protection.
I should have designed myself a damn shoe .. i'll do that in the future.
I want one shoe I can run, sprint, jump, and dunk in..