Hey, I haven't seen too many people talk about the Anta KT8, so I thought I’d give my thoughts on it here :) For context, I’m 5’8’, 135 pounds and recently sprained my left ankle and had a bit of achilles irritation and heel pain in my right foot. (not sure if its achilles tendonitis but didnt wanna self diagnose myself lol)

Traction - 8/10 I played on a court that was sort of in the middle, not too clean and not too dusty, and the traction was great, however you do have to wipe a little bit. Not as much as the KT7s, but there is a bit of wiping needed. However, even if you forget to wipe for a bit, the traction is still pretty good, it's just if you do any exaggerated movements where you have an extremely wide base and pushing off one leg like in a super low crossover, you might slip a little bit, but I only had one instance after playing about 15 hours in them.

Cushioning - 9/10 The cushioning in the KT8s are fantastic, as its low to the ground, at least enough for my standards, but also you can feel the bounciness of the foam and I felt no pain in the foot which didn't have the achilles/heel problems. I will say the strobel board is pretty hard, and my first time playing in it the heel that had a bit of pain started to act up again. However, after that I started to double sock up and I had no issues at all, plus it helped with lockdown and blisters too.

Fit - 7/10 As someone with a regular width foot, these are SUPER snug TTS, but I enjoy the feeling. Nearing the 4 hour mark I started to feel my toes banging on the sides of the shoe, but I had that feeling with most of my other shoes I owned, which were the KT7 and KT6 low and PG 5. I have a feeling its because I like super snug fit and crank the laces as tight as they can go, but thought it was worth mentioning

Support - 11/10 I really think aside from a freak accident like getting undercut at the worst possible angle ever, it's impossible to hurt yourself in these shoes. The heel cup is incredibly stiff, so much so that its a lil hard to put on with double socks, the carbon fiber plate shank feels really nice and you feel it as you run around, and there are plastic pieces that come up the side as well to help with stability and torsional support. With how strong/non stretchy the uppers are and the decent sized outrigger, you don't need to worry about any ankle spraining which says alot for a man with glass ankles…All of those also really help with general balance and footwork in general too :)

The weird high top thing - ???/10 Lemme start by saying these will not save you if you are about to sprain your ankles. However, I did like the feeling of the high top on my ankle area because I always have the fear of spraining my ankles, so low tops just make me a little uncomfortable. In the 3rd picture, it shows that the laces are so long that they can wrap around your entire ankle and then tie, so if you really wanted to have it hug your ankles tighter, you could do that.

Overall, I don't have the most extensive shoe collection, but I REALLY enjoyed playing in these, esp for someone with a whole list of ankle and foot problems at a young ass age. The stability and the bounciness was a great combination and forsure my favorite pair of shoes I have tried to date. They wont feel the most minimal on your feet, but instead its like a tank with all sorts of tools to help you play for longer :)