Update: On Sunday April 28, Eliud Kipchoge broke records and won the men’s race in the 2019 London Marathon with a time of 2:02:37 while wearing the new Nike ZoomX Vaporfly NEXT% sneakers. If you’re looking for a pair of race day-ready sneakers, you have a new pair to try on: Nike just announced its latest and fastest running shoes called the Nike ZoomX Vaporfly NEXT%—a $275 neon green follow-up to the Zoom Vaporfly 4% sneakers you already know.
Courtesy Nike For its newest release, Nike listened to runners and tweaked the upper in the NEXT%, swapping out the Zoom Vaporfly 4%’s Flyknit and outfitting your feet in what it calls Vaporweave. In order to view the video, please allow Manage Cookies
This helps your sneakers stay lightweight and essentially make them better equipped to power through wet-and-miserable races where the last thing you want is to feel like you’re dragging your feet.
Courtesy Nike “Not only is the Vaporweave material lighter than Flyknit, just out of the box and dry, but that gets amplified more and more as you go throughout the race,” says Elliott Heath, product line manager at Nike Running. “The Vaporweave material absorbs less than 13% of the amount of water that the Flyknit and other materials similar to it would absorb, so the weight savings are there from start to finish and even more so at the end.”
Courtesy Nike Inside on the heel, designers placed a small foam strip that covers only part of your heel. It looks like it could be a piece of foam tape and it’s meant to give you just the right amount of comfort without slowing you up. “We really spent a lot of time on a bunch of different constructions just to try to use the exact amount of foam that we felt like we needed but no more,” Heath says, “as opposed to other traditional foam heel packages that would have foam all around the heel—although it’s very comfortable, a lot of that’s just not getting used.” Nike designed the NEXT% with an 8mm drop, along with the carbon fiber plate from the 4% and even more of its ZoomX foam. Trying on the shoes, you can feel how much you want to move to the next step while the foam offers a lightweight, cushioned feel under your feet. “That sensation of energy return and propulsion roll-off that was so unique to the Vaporfly is really just amplified in this next version,” Heath says. “That’s what all of our athletes have continued to call out once trying the shoe, they can notice a difference in just how much energy they’re receiving back.”
Courtesy Nike But those aren’t the only updates. Underneath Nike says it added extra traction in key areas of the shoe based on runner feedback from Eliud Kipchoge to Mo Farah.
View this post on Instagram
I can say that I’m happy to make history in sports today. My goal was to run the streets of London and win for the fourth time. The crowd in London is wonderful and their spirit helped push me all day so I want to say thank you to all the fans. A post shared by Eliud Kipchoge – EGH🇰🇪 (@kipchogeeliud) on Apr 28, 2019 at 9:57am PDT
And looking down, you’ll notice the laces aren’t in the center of your feet like your other running kicks. “Essentially it was to help provide comfort over the 26 miles of the marathon,” says Brett Holts, Nike’s vice president of Running Footwear. Meanwhile, the Nike logo swooshes over your toes to the other side of your feet. And as Nike reps point out, this design choice on the NEXT% is 100% intentional. After all, how else will everyone be able to tell which shoes you wore when you cross the finish line?
Courtesy Nike You can pick up the NEXT% for a retail price of $275. Orders start April 28. Get it
For access to exclusive gear videos, celebrity interviews, and more, subscribe on YouTube!
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Update: On Sunday April 28, Eliud Kipchoge broke records and won the men’s race in the 2019 London Marathon with a time of 2:02:37 while wearing the new Nike ZoomX Vaporfly NEXT% sneakers.
If you’re looking for a pair of race day-ready sneakers, you have a new pair to try on: Nike just announced its latest and fastest running shoes called the Nike ZoomX Vaporfly NEXT%—a $275 neon green follow-up to the Zoom Vaporfly 4% sneakers you already know.
For its newest release, Nike listened to runners and tweaked the upper in the NEXT%, swapping out the Zoom Vaporfly 4%’s Flyknit and outfitting your feet in what it calls Vaporweave.
In order to view the video, please allow Manage Cookies
This helps your sneakers stay lightweight and essentially make them better equipped to power through wet-and-miserable races where the last thing you want is to feel like you’re dragging your feet.
“Not only is the Vaporweave material lighter than Flyknit, just out of the box and dry, but that gets amplified more and more as you go throughout the race,” says Elliott Heath, product line manager at Nike Running. “The Vaporweave material absorbs less than 13% of the amount of water that the Flyknit and other materials similar to it would absorb, so the weight savings are there from start to finish and even more so at the end.”
Inside on the heel, designers placed a small foam strip that covers only part of your heel. It looks like it could be a piece of foam tape and it’s meant to give you just the right amount of comfort without slowing you up. “We really spent a lot of time on a bunch of different constructions just to try to use the exact amount of foam that we felt like we needed but no more,” Heath says, “as opposed to other traditional foam heel packages that would have foam all around the heel—although it’s very comfortable, a lot of that’s just not getting used.”
Nike designed the NEXT% with an 8mm drop, along with the carbon fiber plate from the 4% and even more of its ZoomX foam. Trying on the shoes, you can feel how much you want to move to the next step while the foam offers a lightweight, cushioned feel under your feet. “That sensation of energy return and propulsion roll-off that was so unique to the Vaporfly is really just amplified in this next version,” Heath says. “That’s what all of our athletes have continued to call out once trying the shoe, they can notice a difference in just how much energy they’re receiving back.”
But those aren’t the only updates. Underneath Nike says it added extra traction in key areas of the shoe based on runner feedback from Eliud Kipchoge to Mo Farah.
View this post on Instagram
I can say that I’m happy to make history in sports today. My goal was to run the streets of London and win for the fourth time. The crowd in London is wonderful and their spirit helped push me all day so I want to say thank you to all the fans. A post shared by Eliud Kipchoge – EGH🇰🇪 (@kipchogeeliud) on Apr 28, 2019 at 9:57am PDT
I can say that I’m happy to make history in sports today. My goal was to run the streets of London and win for the fourth time. The crowd in London is wonderful and their spirit helped push me all day so I want to say thank you to all the fans.
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Eliud Kipchoge – EGH🇰🇪 (@kipchogeeliud) on Apr 28, 2019 at 9:57am PDT
And looking down, you’ll notice the laces aren’t in the center of your feet like your other running kicks. “Essentially it was to help provide comfort over the 26 miles of the marathon,” says Brett Holts, Nike’s vice president of Running Footwear.
Meanwhile, the Nike logo swooshes over your toes to the other side of your feet. And as Nike reps point out, this design choice on the NEXT% is 100% intentional. After all, how else will everyone be able to tell which shoes you wore when you cross the finish line?
You can pick up the NEXT% for a retail price of $275. Orders start April 28.
For access to exclusive gear videos, celebrity interviews, and more, subscribe on YouTube!
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