When the Puma Hoops x Cheetos Scoot Zeros were on sale the other week at just $55, I knew I had to get a pair. Not so much because they were my style, but because I like getting occasional Blazers merch and I was in the market for a second pair of court-ready indoor basketball shoes. While I had limited knowledge about these shoes, I have since worn them for a half-dozen games or so. It might be a bit early, but I felt ready enough both to review them and to have a Flamin’ Hot Cheeto-level spicy take about these glowing orange oddities.
History of Scoot Henderson and Puma
The Puma Scoot Zeros are Portland Trail Blazers guard Scoot Henderson’s inaugural shoe. Henderson’s partnership with Puma was announced back in 2022, well before he ever hit an NBA court and about a year before he was drafted third overall by the Blazers. The deal was reported to be seven figures and is reportedly the richest basketball shoe deal ever for an athlete that was not draft eligible.
In June of 2023, it was reported that Scoot would have his own signature shoe, the Scoot Zeros, and he debuted the shoe in January of 2024, becoming just the seventh rookie in NBA history to wear their own signature shoe.
Puma announced the Scoot Zeros II in September of 2024, and they dropped in stores in December.
Grades: The Scoot Zeros Cheetos Colorway
While the Scoot Zeros and Zeros II both have aggressive designs and colorways, heads were turned and orange-stained lips gaped in surprise as Puma announced a partnership with Cheetos for Scoot’s signature shoe in February of 2024. The shoes were wild in pictures. The presentation in person was even better.
Opening the package was a delight
Brandon Mullen
Marketing and Branding: A
Opening the package to find the Cheetos-branded shoe box was just plain fun. I felt like a kid, and the design is done so well. From the simple but timeless red, orange, and yellow design, to the “Cheetos Scoot” label, to the broken barcode that suggests perhaps a wild animal busted through it, everything about the box was perfect to me. This design is both very much of this era, but with a geometric simplicity of the 1960s and colors that feel like the late 1980s. This will still look fresh 20 years from now.
Picture of Puma Hoops x Cheetos Scoot Zeros shoe box The shoe box, both modern and classic
Brandon Mullen
Inside the box was a surprise: A rugged plastic shoe bag styled as an oversized bag of Cheetos, complete with a balling Chester the Cheetah on the front and “nutritional facts” on the back letting you know these shoes are 0% conventional and 100% fun. My ONLY gripe about the branding came here, and it’s what prevented this from being an easy A+... the bag had a deep crease in it. Yes, I know it’s necessary in order to make it fit, but even after I (carefully) took the hair dryer to it for a few minutes and tried to flatten it out, I could only get it a little flatter. If they were being really careful, Puma might have been able to find a way to roll the bag around a cardboard core and prevent the creasing, but in the grand scheme of things it’s a minor quibble.
You couldn’t ask for a more whimsical presentation
Brandon Mullen
Construction and Quality Control: A+
I looked VERY hard for construction flaws, and I found none. It feels like when I buy some shoes (Nikes especially), I can expect to see an odd seam or hem, maybe a little bubble of glue, or something else. Normally I don’t mind. But staring at the stitching on this shoe and seeing row after row of perfectly sunk thread was nice. The seam between the upper and sole looks about as flawless as I could expect, and the way the different parts of the shoe are sealed (including the flame decal to the mid and the heat sealing around the shoelace eyelets) left nothing to be desired.
The shoes came stitch-perfect
Brandon Mullen
Even the way the material was cut (for example the edge of the yellow in the picture above as it meets the black) was at a perfect angle all the way around, leaving no little snags of the inside of the material to detract from the lines it created.
I have a theory that Puma - not being one of the mega shoe companies - needs to go above and beyond to prove its product’s worth to consumers. Maybe that’s true, and if so, I appreciated being the beneficiary of that level of attention. It was noticeable both from afar an (importantly) up close.
Materials: B+
My biggest fear getting these shoes is that they looked a bit plasticky, especially at the toe. I was therefore delighted pulling these things from the box and feeling what I thought would be thick plastic was actually somewhat supple.
According to Puma, they use “PROFOAM” for the midsole, a lightweight EVA material that isn’t among their most premium, but both from the box and on foot felt dense and responsive enough for my taste. It has a combination of synthetic, mesh, and textile upper which in totality gives the shoe a pretty durable and stable feel. However, breathable it is not, and if you’re the type that prefers a stretchier or more ventilated upper (for example a Primeknit that Adidas uses on its Ultraboost shoes) then you won’t like these. For me, I appreciate a basketball shoe that’s a bit tankier upstairs than what I might wear casually, and I also get the sense the overall shape of the shoe will hold up way better than something that would have been immediately more comfortable.
All of the materials point toward being durable
Brandon Mullen
The soles are rubber and they wrap slightly around toward the shoe’s upper, offering more traction even when rolling your foot a bit. I found it to be the right amount of tacky and had no qualms or insights about the material one way or the other.
All of that said, the materials were neither super premium nor super breathable. That may make a difference to some, but the Scoot Zeros gain points by being more supple than expected and by having the fit on foot feel secure, which is a credit to those same materials.
Laces: A
An overlooked part of shoes are the very things intended to keep them on your feet. I cannot say how many times I have stopped a run or a workout to re-tie the dense, ungiving laces on my running shoes. It’s annoying. The Scoot Zeros have semi flat laces with plenty of give, and that give means that when you tie them, they can actually dig into each other and stay locked. Not once in the two hours of playing did I have to worry about the laces slipping, and I really appreciate that. Some may prefer a slightly denser lace, but to me these did their job and that’s all I care about.
Grip and Outsole Balance: A+
These shoes are phenomenally balanced on the outsole. What I mean by that (and maybe there’s a better way to articulate this): put on your favorite pair of shoes. Rock yourself side to side. Now get your ankles in on the action, and rock them far enough to roll them. Try forward and back; now try left to right. There are shoes whose design are either way too “rolly” (making it feel like you’re going to turn an ankle at a moment’s notice) or way too stable (making it hard to roll, but if you DO make that roll, your ankle is going immediately into the floor). These shoes were PERFECTLY balanced for me, stable and responsive when I needed it, but able to roll on command when making cuts.
Remember when I said the outside went toward the midsole a bit? This is where that matters: especially for players with better movement skills than me, the ability to turn your ankles to drag to a stop on crossovers or hard cuts or just make advance footwork movements is really important, and these shoes excel here.
The grip and balance was superlative
Brandon Mullen
The tread pattern was a classic zig-zag at the top, a tighter repeating hexagon in the middle, and a zig-zag whose grooves got wider as you went down toward the bottom. In my experience, having a little wider tread near the bottom is helpful so you don’t get stuck when pivoting on your heels, and a tighter pattern near the top helps keep you glued to the floor. I found both to work in perfect concert, and never once had to wipe my shoes (though we were playing indoors and the court was pretty clean). There is no sign of the rubber tearing, which, yes, I have seen after only a few hours on indoor play before. I immediately felt like I could trust this shoe’s grip, which is a great sign given I had almost no warmup before playing full court with others.
Tongue, Sock, and Lining: A
I didn’t see it at first glance, but this shoe does have an inner sock that starts well inside the tongue. There are times I prefer a bigger integrated liner, but in this case I actually quite appreciated the more traditional look and feel up top but with the security of an inner sock below. The tongue itself is a medium thickness and density... maybe just a micrometer not wide enough for my taste, but it never got shoved over during play, the sock below perhaps holding it in place.
The inner lining encapsulates the entire toe box, so you’re not feeling that plasticky toe but rather a fabric with some density to it. That was both noticed and appreciated. The heel isn’t too thin or thick: sometimes a very thick heel can feel great for casual wear but feel strange and not supportive enough when playing. No such issues here, and this shoe felt comfortable both before the game and during.
The tongue, sock, and lining aren’t flashy, but functional
Brandon Mullen
Foot lockdown, Fit, and Comfort: A
I really liked how these fit for me, and I know this is a preference thing for everybody... but everything from the relatively wide toe box, to the placement of the laces, to the tongue, to the heel made your feet feel like they weren’t going anywhere. Predictably, it took a few runs for me to get the lace pressure right, and this is a dance any player does with their shoes, especially when brand new. But even in the beginning when I didn’t crank the laces too hard, they felt more than fine and I had no worries about my feet sloshing around inside them. After a little while, I did tighten up the laces near the toe without overdoing it, and from there it was perfection.
The arch feels pretty neutral to me both to my hand and on foot, and I would say these run either true to size or just the tiniest bit smaller. I wear an 11 and some of my size 11 Dames are frankly a tick too big to wear on court, but these felt perfect and rather similar to my other size 11 in-game shoe, the Nike LeBron NXXT Gen. And I already touched on overall comfort in a few different spots, but I would put these firmly in the “comfortable” category on the court despite (or maybe because) they aren’t the stretchiest or cushiest. I have hooped before in the D Lillard 2s that have both Primeknit and Ultraboost... and I really didn’t like it! It was like hooping on sponges. The Scoot Zeros offer enough by way of fit, adjustability, lining, and cushioning to give you confidence, and confidence is a form of comfort, at least for me.
Style: B
Ironically, the one thing about these shoes that is supposed to make them stand out is what falls shorter than other categories. This is totally a preference thing: some folks may appreciate the flame design, leopard print, and ostentatious yellows, reds, and oranges. I did not... at first. But darned if these aren’t growing on me.
The shoes honestly looked better than I expected
Cassie Mullen
They’re stylistically cohesive and tell a clear story, and I definitely don’t have a pair of shoes that look like them. To my eye - and you can be the judge by the picture above - they actually clash somewhat less than I feared with my random assortment of basketball gear I ended up wearing. Nobody is going to see orange shoes, white socks, blue shorts, a dark blue tank, and black headbands and wrist bands and be asking them for style advice.
Let’s face it: some people are great at styling their shoes. I pretend to be fashionable, but sometimes it feels and looks a bit forced. When I’m actually playing, I need to be comfortable, and function trumps form every time. Given all that, my slapped-together outfit looked okay to me, and I’m super curious if this will be the case with other shorts and shirts.
Price: A (A++ if on sale)
These shoes are regularly priced at $100. Given eggs cost like $15 a dozen nowadays, that’s a pretty accessible price point for high-functioning basketball shoes, which these definitely are. By comparison, the Dame 9s retail at $120 and the LeBron NEXXT Gens retail at $170 (you can obviously get both on sale if you’re patient). I would put the Scoot Zeros on par with both, maybe giving the slight edge to the LeBron NEXXT Gens for having more premium materials. But everything about this shoe feels and performs above my expectations as a casual but tryhard-y player who is picky about their shoes.
I got these for $55. That makes these the best value I’ve ever gotten for a basketball shoe in my life. They appear to be sold out now, but if they come back anywhere near that price, it’s a bargain.
Overall: A+
Yeah, I said it: These get an A+. I waffled on the plus part... especially because they’re Cheeto-colored shoes. That’s silly. That’s ridiculous. That’s... fun! And that’s exactly what these stupid things are.
The orange is more orange than most oranges
Brandon Mullen
From the presentation to the look to the construction to how they perform, these are a capital e Experience, and one that’s worth having if you’re a sneakerhead, if you like the Blazers and Scoot Henderson, or just want a high-quality, well-performing basketball shoe without exploding your checking account. And I can’t get over how well quality controlled these things came. Maybe different people had a different experience, but there are only a few times I remember looking really, REALLY hard for a production flaw in a pair of new shoes and not finding a single one. That’s impressive, as is the overall construction which will fool you into thinking these are way more expensive than they are, despite not using premium materials.
The styling won’t be for everyone. Even looking at the other colorways for the Scoot Zeros and Scoot Zero IIs, it’s obvious that flash and attention-grabbing design is part of this shoe’s DNA. If that’s not for you, that’s completely understandable.
But beneath their cheese-coated exterior - a style that may just grow on you as it has for me - you will find a basketball shoe more than worthy of making the court at a totally reasonable price. For this aging wannabe basketball player, that means more than bigger-brand cache and name recognition, and is why I wouldn’t hesitate to buy another pair of these in the future.