Many shoes have plates like this, so the magic is how well you can get the plate to blend into the shoe to the point where runners aren’t sure if the foam or the plate is providing the running sensation. This “propulsive sensation” is the plate trying to bend back to the original shape when you bend it. Nike has a great abrasion resistant outsole, the large Lunarlon foam block for the majority of the insole, and then a full-length carbon-infused nylon plate to keep the shape of the sole and to “deliver a propulsive sensation”. You can’t have an impressive running sole with just a blob of foam (bite me, Crocs).Ī sandwich of materials ensures you have abrasion resistant materials on the outside, shock absorbing materials next to that, torsion and deformation resistant materials next to that, and softer materials near your foot. Lunarlon is 30% lighter than standard phylon foam and the thick stack heights of this Lunarlon foam do an impressive job of reducing impact forces. Personally, I wished Nike used their new Zoomx, but that might have been prohibitive to do at this $150 price point. But those TPU foams are a tad heavier than what Nike was looking for, so they stuck with their Lunarlon foam on this shoe. Many shoe manufacturers right now are testing new types of foam and getting measurable improvements.Ĭurrently, TPU type foam is leading the edge, where Adidas has Boost Foam and Saucony has Everun foam. The majority of what makes this shoe a 10/10 is in the sole and everything about it seems right to me.
#Nike zoom air fire on foot full
However, I think it was worth the wait, hope you learn if the shoes are right for you after reading my full review, and I hope you don’t mind that the photos of the shoe are a little dirty as they were taken after about 200 miles of running. I liked it so much that I ran about 200 miles in these shoes before writing this review (which probably distressed our site founder a little since we normally just do 50 miles before a review, haha). I was treated to some of the most comfortable fast and long runs that I’ve experienced in a while when wearing the Zoom Fly shoes. That upturned toe on the sole reminds me of some of the Sketchers GoMeb shoes that were created for elite marathoners, and it really feels like it is best suited for fast long distance racing since your foot smoothly rolls from flat to 45 degrees in your stride without any deformation of the shoe. The shoe feels like it wants you to start moving forward. The foam of the outsole is fantastically light and responsive with a 33 mm heel and 23 mm in the forefoot with an intuitive upturned toe. The sole of the shoe is where Nike went to another level. The lacing system feels pretty standard for a top Nike shoe, utilizing minimalist Flywire and low-profile eyelets, and the insides of the upper felt pretty standard for top Nike shoe with a near seamless construction. That’s why I was excited to unbox the Zoom Flys and lace them up for a long fast workout. I did qualify and run the Boston Marathon this year (although I ran in the Saucony Freedom ISOs and not the Zoom Flys), so I think I’m in Nike’s target market for this shoe. I’m sure Nike would love EVERY runner to drop $150 on a pair of new running shoes, but this does not make sense for most people, so that’s why this shoe is best suited for those at the top of their running game. You only seriously look at the arrow when you’re struggling to improve the last few percentage points. The majority of your success will come from training, and you just need gear that’s good enough to make it the rest of the way. However, the adage, “It’s not the arrow, it’s the indian” comes up when discussing top tier running tech like this. So what we have here is best of the shoes you can by from Nike that came out of the Breaking2 project. Since the public cannot buy the elite versions, Nike had a short production run of the Zoom Vaporfly 4%, and focused the rest of production on the Zoom Fly and Air Zoom Pegasus 34 shoes. Nike pointed some of the success to their to their Zoom Vaporfly 4% Elite shoes that were created for this event. Nike shocked many in the running community this May with a 2:00:25 near miss (although it will not be recorded as an official record due to several factors). This was an absurd attempt by Nike that needed the best of running tech to support the best of runners. Nike announced a year ago (December 2016) that they were going to break 2 hours in the marathon. Few running shoes come with such a story.