Vaporfly

A new kind of shoe

Throughout its history, Nike has been at the forefront of running shoe technology. From Bill Bowerman’s Waffle sole to Frank Rudy’s Air cushioning, the brand has always been able to provide runners with innovative designs that enhance various aspects of comfort and performance. However, in the early 2010s, there was one area in which they seemed to be falling behind: marathon shoes. Between 2007 and 2014, the men’s marathon world record was broken five times by athletes wearing models from the adidas AdiZero series. Nike’s designers needed to respond, and they did so in the most extraordinary fashion, creating a new kind of shoe that had never been seen before. Known as the Nike Vaporfly, this technologically advanced runner not only outclassed the competition, it changed the entire landscape of athletic footwear.

The first carbon-fibre plate

Ironically, the technology that allowed Nike to make such significant strides forward was initially developed by adidas. Around the turn of the millennium, Nike’s rival engaged in research with scientists at the University of Calgary’s Human Performance Lab, leading to an important discovery. They found that by adding a carbon-fibre plate to the midsole of a running shoe, it was possible to stiffen the otherwise soft cushioning in such a way that the runner lost less energy with each step, and thus could perform better, especially over long distances. By the early 2000s, adidas was producing footwear with a so-called Pro Plate inside, and over the next few years its energy-returning properties made these shoes a success. However, they were still being outcompeted by running shoes without a carbon-fibre plate, so, in the late noughties, the brand stopped investing in the expensive technology, choosing instead to focus on Boost foam.

An important young scientist

Around this time, a young Chinese student named Geng Luo was conducting research for a PhD in Biomechanics. His supervisor was Dr. Darren Stefanyshyn, who just happened to be one of the scientists who took part in adidas’ late 90s project with the University of Calgary, and an integral part of the team that conceptualised the original carbon-fibre plate. Under his guidance, Luo took part in a 2012 adidas-sponsored initiative that involved testing prototype running shoes, giving him great insight into footwear design and the kind of technology athletes required. While this must have been exciting for Luo, he had been a fan of Nike since childhood, when the Air Max line was popular in his native China, and was much more inclined to work with them. Towards the end of his PhD studies, Luo became aware of a footwear research competition sponsored by the brand, which he duly entered and won. Impressed, Nike offered Luo a job in 2013, and he jumped at the chance, taking important knowledge about running shoe technology, in particular the carbon-fibre plate, with him. Not long after joining the company, the young scientist was assigned to an ambitious new endeavour aimed at constructing an advanced running shoe that could take a marathon runner below the two-hour barrier for the first time in history. Luo would turn out to be a key part of its development journey.

A team of experts

By 2014, Nike had decided to commit even more firmly to this goal, setting up the Breaking2 Project in a determined effort to achieve the first sub-two-hour marathon. Its leader was Nike’s VP of Special Projects and brand stalwart, Sandy Bodecker, who was known, among other accomplishments, for establishing the highly successful skateboarding division, Nike SB. Bodecker had been captivated by the idea of the two-hour marathon for years, so much so that he had the digits 1:59:59 tattooed on his wrist. He considered it to be “the last big, once-in-a-generation barrier” after Roger Bannister’s four-minute-mile from 1954 and Jim Hines’ decimation of the 10-second barrier in 1968. This obsessive attitude made him the perfect candidate to take on such a challenge, but he also needed help, and he set about assembling a powerful team of experts who could analyse every single factor that might affect a marathon, down to the very finest of details. His leadership group was completed by VP of Footwear Innovation Tony Bignell, who was responsible for liaising with Nike’s elite athletes and using their insights to improve the equipment, and Matthew Nurse, who led the scientists and researchers in the Nike Explore Team of the high-tech facility known as the Nike Sports Research Lab. Geng Luo – now a senior researcher in biomechanics – was part of the team in charge of designing the athletic footwear for the race, and he was joined by experienced Nike employees like Helene Hutchinson, who was a key member of the team which had developed Nike Free technology, Bret Schoolmeester, who had previously helped to launch Nike Flyknit, and former NASA engineer Jorge Carbo. Meanwhile, another group of scientists led by Dr. Brad Wilkins and Dr. Brett Kirby worked on products and strategies that optimised running performance. This involved looking at everything from training and nutrition to cardiovascular performance, and even the environmental factors surrounding the race.

Three special athletes

Using their broad experience and expertise, the Breaking2 team tested out different ways to incorporate the carbon-fibre plate into the shoe, first adding it to a traditional racing flat. This didn’t work at all, so they moved on to other ideas, constantly getting feedback from the athletes as they progressed. Three men were chosen to take on the challenge, and each was supported and monitored in their own training camps by scientists who tailored hydration, nutrition and preparation routines to their specific needs. In Spain was Eritrean long-distance runner Zersenay Tadese, who had won multiple gold medals at the World Half Marathon Championships and had held the half marathon world record since 2010, and in Ethiopia was road racing specialist Lelisa Desisa, who was several years younger than the others but had already impressed by running one of the fastest marathon debuts ever at 2013 race in Dubai before going on to win the Boston Marathon that same year. Perhaps the most exciting runner in the group, though, was the man training in Kenya: Eliud Kipchoge. Having originally specialised in the 5,000m, a distance at which he had won several medals, Kipchoge switched to longer formats in 2012, and just one year later, he won the Hamburg Marathon on debut, setting a new course record in the process. Later in 2013, he came second in the Berlin Marathon behind Wilson Kipsang as his compatriot took 15 seconds off the previous world record. Kipsang was running in an adidas shoe, signifying the dominance enjoyed by Nike’s rival, but this was soon to be challenged as the Breaking2 Project pushed running shoe innovation to a new level.

A finely tuned midsole

Nike collaborated with Kipchoge and his fellow athletes for several years, eventually unlocking the power of the carbon-fibre plate by moulding it into a unique spoon-like shape and placing it between two thick slabs of Pebax foam known as ZoomX. The brand had been using this specialised cushioning material since the 1990s but were constantly reformulating it to serve different purposes. In the course of Breaking2, the scientists repeatedly tweaked the formula until they had manipulated the foam into a state that was very low in density and therefore far lighter and more responsive than EVA. This allowed them to use more foam without significantly increasing the weight of the shoe, thus providing the runner with more impact protection and energy return. ZoomX was incredibly soft and could potentially be unstable as a result, but the carbon-fibre plate counteracted this effect, stiffening up the sole unit and working with the cushioning material to guide the foot forwards and provide a springy sensation through each step.

Early prototypes

Throughout this time, Nike’s groundbreaking project was a closely guarded secret, but in 2016, the brand’s athletes started performing better and better in official competition, leading to speculation that its designers were developing a new and potentially groundbreaking piece of footwear. The first signs of such a model came at the women’s marathon trials for the upcoming Rio Olympics. Experienced runner Kara Goucher, who had previously represented her country at the 2012 Olympics, was one of the favourites to qualify, but in order to do so, she had to finish in the top three. So, when she crossed the line in fourth place, Goucher was disappointed to say the least. Although not worried about it at the time, she had been told that some runners would be wearing a Nike prototype that could significantly boost their performance, and it turned out that two of the three people to beat her had been. Amy Cragg, the race winner, was one of them, having beaten Goucher by more than two minutes, while the third-placed finisher, Shalane Flanagan, was the other, the Nike-sponsored athlete later stating that her shoes were “a game changer” which helped her to “run faster”. Over in the men’s race, Galen Rupp also sported the prototype Vaporfly as he became just the second runner in history to win the Olympic marathon trials on debut.

A controversial Olympics

This was the first of several controversial moments for Vaporfly prototypes as competing athletes became frustrated at the sight of their rivals edging them in race after race. A prime example of this was at the 2016 Olympics, where Kipchoge emerged victorious after running a remarkable negative split of more than three minutes. Finishing in second and third respectively were Ethiopian athlete Feyisa Lilesa and Galen Rupp. All three men ran in the Vaporfly prototype, whose bright pink and yellow upper was taken from the Zoom Streak 6, a shoe worn by many other athletes that day, so people initially thought they were wearing it too. The giveaway was the prototype’s unusually tall midsole. Interestingly, one of the race commentators mentioned the increasingly fast times Kipchoge was producing, but stated that he thought the 2-hour barrier wouldn’t be broken for “another 25 years or so”. Nike was determined to disprove this theory as the day of the Breaking2 attempt was now less than one year away.

An innovation moonshot

The achievements of athletes wearing the Vaporfly prototype had demonstrated to Nike’s engineers that it could improve performance over long distances, and while the running community debated the morals of the brand’s use of prototype shoes in official competition, Bodecker and his team prepared to announce Breaking2 to the world. They did so on December 12th 2016, in a press release which described the project as “an innovation moonshot designed to unlock human potential.” Over the next few months, while the three runners each embarked on a bespoke seven-month training plan, Nike put out a series of other news bulletins outlining the men and women behind the attempt, the athletes involved and, just one day before the event, the race strategy. The last revealed the incredible precision with which the team were approaching the attempt and the various ways in which they would try to optimise every little detail to achieve their goal. This included employing a band of thirty pace runners from eight different countries who would be arranged into a triangle of six athletes in front of the three main runners at all times. It had been determined that this would be the best formation to protect the athletes from wind, with three pacers swapping out for fresh runners roughly every five kilometres. This supporting team were to be directed by an electric car that would project a green line for them to follow while also displaying the pace, time passed and projected finish. Personalised drinks containing customised mixtures of carbohydrates, caffeine and fluids would be delivered to each runner by assistants riding on mopeds to ensure proper hydration with minimum disruption. Due to these artificial conditions, the race could not be considered for official records, but Nike was more interested in creating history than setting a world record.

The Zoom Vaporfly Elite

It was during this period that Nike revealed the details of the Zoom Vaporfly Elite to the public. In a newsroom announcement on March 7th, 2017, the brand described it as a “concept shoe” that “combines athlete insight with biomechanics analysis and cutting-edge engineering.” It also explained that the Vaporfly’s design went against conventional wisdom, going for a “more is more” approach, as opposed to the traditional low-profile build. Instead of this minimal look, the shoe had a ZoomX midsole with a “21mm forefoot stack height” that both cushioned the foot against the road and provided excellent energy return, along with a “unidirectional carbon fiber plate, with an athlete-optimized stiffness profile” and a flowing heel “modeled for ultimate aerodynamics”. Other elements that were highlighted include the “9mm offset”, which helped to protect the Achilles, the “Flyknit upper”, which contained the foot, and the “iconic sweep of the midsole coloring”, which acted as a visual representation of the scooped “geometry of the carbon fiber plate”. Geng Luo revealed the effect of this plate, stating that its carefully designed shape and stiffness reduced “how much energy loss happens when the runner bends at the toe… without increasing demand on the calf.” Woven through the piece was information regarding the Breaking2 Project and how everything about the shoe and the other specially crafted apparel was geared towards the record-breaking event, which was now just two months away.

The Breaking2 race

On May 6th 2017, Kipchoge lined up beside Tadese, Desisa and the first six pace runners on the Monza Formula 1 racetrack ready to take on the challenge. The course itself had been carefully chosen for its favourable conditions, which included low altitude, temperate weather and a short lap length with long, gradual turns that wouldn’t slow the runner. It was early in the morning, and still barely twilight, but the Kenyan stood out in his bright orange vest and arm sleeves, while all three racers wore an Ice Blue colourway of the Nike Vaporfly Elite that was specifically tuned to their individual feet. The green glow of the pacing lasers could clearly be seen, and as the race horn was sounded by Sandy Bodecker, the group set off, quickly settling into the prearranged arrow formation. As the time passed and the light improved, it became clear that there was only one man who might challenge the two-hour barrier. At around 16km, Desisa began to fall behind the required pace, and Tadese dropped off at about the 20km mark, leaving Kipchoge on his own. By the 30th kilometre, he was one second behind the required pace, and he never quite made the time back, finishing agonisingly short of the target in 2:00:25. Despite this, Kipchoge had a huge smile on his face after crossing the line, and just moments later, he was interviewed by Paula Radcliffe, who described it as a “phenomenal achievement” and a “very inspiring performance.” In a later interview, Kipchoge showed his trademark magnanimous attitude, stating that “the world now is just 25 seconds away” from a sub two-hour marathon.

A successful outcome

Although none of the three runners had reached the two-hour target, the Breaking2 Project had been a huge success for Nike. Kipchoge had come so close and Tadese had beaten his previous personal best time by almost four minutes, thus proving how good the Vaporfly was. It also gave runners around the world the belief that they could go under two hours, and when the Nike Vaporfly 4% was released to the general public in July 2017, it was an instant success. In fact, it quickly became difficult for anyone to get hold of the shoe, with many people sitting on waiting lists for weeks before gaining access to a pair. Many Nike-sponsored athletes had received the shoe before its general release, and throughout the year, they proved the effectiveness of its carbon-fibre plate and ZoomX foam again and again.

A remarkable year

At the end of 2017, Nike produced an infographic that showcased the shoe’s dominance, making use of the famous “It’s gotta be the shoes” slogan from Jordan Brand’s adverts for early Air Jordan models. Next to this, the “19 top finishes” and “6 World Marathons” that the Vaporfly had been involved in that year were mentioned alongside references to its “Unprecedented Podium Finishes” and the fact that “Of 36 possible finishes in the 2017 World Major Marathons, athletes in the Nike Zoom Vaporfly 4% achieved 19.” It also broke down achievements in specific events, showing that 83% of the top-three athletes across both men’s and women’s races at the Boston Marathon wore the shoe, and that in Chicago and New York, eight of the twelve medal winners ran in it. Shalane Flanagan was honoured for becoming the first American woman since 1977 to win the New York Marathon, beating second place by 61 seconds, and Kipchoge was also mentioned for having “recorded the fastest time across all six World Marathon Majors while wearing the Nike Zoom Vaporfly 4%” at the Berlin Marathon.

An unexpected meeting

Kipchoge’s defiant performance at the 2017 Berlin Marathon involved a terrific battle with Ethiopian runner and marathon debutant Guye Adola. In fact, from around the 30km mark,  Adola and Kipchoge were out in front on their own after former world record holder Wilson Kipsang dropped out of the race. The pair were close together for the next 5km until Adola made a move, pulling away from Kipchoge. However, the experienced Kenyan wasn’t finished yet, and closed the distance at 40km. He soon overtook Adola, before gradually extending his lead over the final 2km to triumph by a mere fourteen seconds. Kipchoge’s inspirational run caught the attention of visionary designer Virgil Abloh, who was in the process of completing his iconic ‘The Ten’ collection for Nike at the time. Many of the silhouettes Abloh had selected were retro classics like the Blazer and the Air Jordan 1, but alongside these heritage models was the Vaporfly. The collection was composed of those shoes that had “broken barriers in performance and style” – a phrase that perfectly summed up the Vaporfly, and hence why the designer felt compelled to include it. Following the Berlin Marathon, Abloh travelled to meet with Kipchoge and discuss the topics of running and footwear innovation. During the interview, in which Kipchoge wore his Vaporfly running shoes and Abloh sported the Vapormax model from his upcoming collection, the marathoner spoke of his desire to “inspire” his “teammates to aim high and never look back”, while the designer said that it was because the shoe had been made “for a runner” that he felt compelled to choose it as he wanted to “call out this whole idea of innovation” and show that “both sport and design are projects rooted in a human quality.” He then shared his ghostly white Nike x Off-White Zoom Vaporfly SP with Kipchoge, writing the runner’s name and winning time from the Berlin Marathon – 2:03:32 – in the trademark black lettering of his Off-White clothing brand. Towards the end of the interview, Abloh said “Debuting an idea is something that needs to happen for you to add the second idea. Then the culture can catch up and digest.” Whether he realised it or not, this statement had interesting parallels with the story of the Vaporfly, which caused some controversy at the beginning but was later considered a pioneer in the world of athletic footwear.

The 4% claim

The striking dominance of the first Nike Vaporfly left other athletes and footwear brands stunned, spurring debate around the concept of fairness in sport and the role of athletic equipment. Meanwhile, sports scientists began looking into the technology that was helping Nike’s runners to achieve such incredible results. In particular, they investigated the claim that the Vaporfly could improve running economy by 4%, something the brand was so confident of that it was even included in the shoe’s official name. The study that was used to produce that figure had been carried out at the University of Colorado and published in the November 2017 edition of Sports Medicine, with the conclusion that Nike’s prototype shoe reduced the “energetic cost for running” by “4.16 and 4.01%” compared to “two established marathon shoes” thanks to its high energy return of 80% in the heel and 77% in the forefoot. It also suggested that top athletes wearing the shoe “could run substantially faster and achieve the first sub-2-hour marathon”. These findings were supported by an analysis conducted by The New York Times in 2018. Looking at race data collected on the Strava fitness app for marathons and half marathons since 2014, they showed that the 4% claim was about right, concluding that “runners in Vaporflys ran 3 to 4 percent faster than similar runners wearing other shoes, and more than 1 percent faster than the next-fastest racing shoe.” Some of the findings were even more eye-opening, such as the fact that 85% of runners performed better after switching to Vaporflys between the 2017 and 2018 Boston Marathons.

Improving the design

Following its successful debut year, the Vaporfly went from strength to strength as Nike looked to improve on the innovative design of the original super shoe. In April 2018, the brand managed to reduce its weight by producing an Elite version with a 3D printed upper. This so-called Flyprint model was created just before the London Marathon, which Kipchoge won once again. For much of the race, it looked like he might set a new world record, but he couldn’t keep up the pace and finished just over a minute short of Dennis Kimetto’s 2014 time. However, the marathon master wouldn’t have to wait long to beat it as he was about to run one of the greatest races of his career to date.

A stunning record

In August 2018, Nike introduced the Zoom Vaporfly 4% Flyknit. The tough, lightweight Flyknit fabric used on the upper provided more breathability alongside high levels of comfort and containment, elevating the design of the general release model. The material had already been used on the Elite version and featured again on the shoe that Kipchoge wore as he took to the track in Berlin on September 16th 2018. Having won the event in 2015 and 2017, expectations were high, but there was even more pressure on Kipchoge as his recent performances suggested that he was capable of setting a new world record, especially in the favourable conditions of the Berlin Marathon. Mental fortitude was something that the Kenyan athlete had become known for over the years, and it showed as he went out strongly over the first half of the race, establishing a fifty metre gap over the rest of the male athletes after 10km. Before he reached 16km, he was down to just one of his three pace runners, with commentators suggesting that things maybe weren’t going to plan, despite Kipchoge’s quick start. His final runner, the tenacious Josphat Boit, valiantly kept with Kipchoge through 25km, but shortly after dropped out, leaving him on his own. By this point, Boit had done his job as Kipchoge was already more than one minute in front of the second-placed runner, and, perhaps more importantly, 26 seconds ahead of world-record pace. Through the rest of the race, Kipchoge cut even more time off Dennis Kimetto’s record, eventually sprinting through the winner’s tape in a quite remarkable time of 2:01:39, running right into the arms of his coach before dropping to his knees in disbelief at what he had just achieved. His outstanding time was one minute and eighteen seconds better than the previous world record, which was the greatest margin of improvement seen in the men’s marathon for over fifty years.

Even more foam

The shoe worn by Kipchoge that day looked like the Bright Crimson colourway of the Vaporfly 4% Flyknit, but it was in fact something slightly different. While it had that shoe’s upper, its sole unit had been updated to incorporate 15% more ZoomX foam, whose compliant and resilient properties allowed the midsole to absorb, store and ultimately return more energy to the runner than ever before. Its carbon-fibre plate maintained the design that had brought its predecessor so much success, stabilising the ankle joint and reducing the strain on the calves through each step. Perhaps this is what gave Kipchoge that extra impetus to accelerate through the latter stages of the race and finally take down the world record. Notably, he came ahead of many athletes wearing adidas running shoes, including his closest challenger, Amos Kipruto, as well as beating a duo of Nike runners sporting the prototype Vaporfly, one of whom was his Breaking2 teammate Zersenay Tadese, the Eritrean setting a new personal best of his own at the age of 36.

The NEXT%

Kipchoge’s Berlin Marathon victory and other 2017 achievements earned him the IAAF World Athlete of the Year award, but it also signified the beginning of a new chapter for the Vaporfly series. The advanced sole unit of his prototype was part of the research and development programme for Nike’s newest super shoe, the ZoomX Vaporfly NEXT%. Due to the increased amount of foam in the midsole and the lower heel-toe offset, which was reduced to 8mm, the brand discovered that athletes could gain even more benefits to running efficiency, and for a while, its creators thought about naming it the Vaporfly 5% to reflect this increase. However, their research was also revealing that the level of improvement depended on the individual, with some receiving more enhancements and others less. As a result, they decided to leave the percent sign without a number, thus showing that the gains could be even greater than before.

An enhanced design

As well as having more foam, the Vaporfly NEXT% also came with a host of other upgrades. One of the key improvements was to the upper, which was made from a new material called Vaporweave. Combining two different formulations of thermoplastic that gave it flexible but snug-fitting properties, its primary advantage over the previous design was that it absorbed 93% less water, meaning that runners would not be hindered by the extra weight of a soaking upper in wet conditions. This lighter upper is what gave Senior Footwear Designer Vianney de Montgolfier and his team the room to add an extra millimetre of foam to the heel and a further four to the forefoot. These changes made the base of the shoe wider as well, giving a little more stability and creating additional space in the toe. Soft padding was placed in the heel to improve fit, bring soft comfort around the back of the foot and protect the Achilles tendon from injury. The lacing system was also offset so as to reduce pressure over the top of the foot. This last change provided enough space for an enormous swoosh to be placed down the medial flank and across the forefoot; a move said to be motivated by the fact that Kipchoge was usually “the first one to cross the finish line”, which meant that he was always photographed from the front, making it the best spot for the brand’s iconic logo.

Another world record tumbles

By 2019, other brands were finally beginning to design their own super shoes, and yet Nike’s athletes continued to dominate the marathon. In April, Kipchoge won his fourth London Marathon in the second-fastest time in history up to that point, breaking his own course record in the process, while second and third place also went to runners wearing the Vaporfly. In the women’s race, another Kenyan runner by the name of Brigid Kosgei became the youngest female to win the event, setting up her and the Nike Vaporfly for a great year together. In September, she set a new course record at the Great North Run, but her biggest achievement came just one month later at the Chicago Marathon. In London, she had worn the Vaporfly 4%, but the new Vaporfly NEXT% had been released in July, so she chose the updated version for her Chicago run, as did many other athletes, leading to a sea of bright pink running shoes at the event. Having won the year before, Kosgei was in good shape to do so again in 2019 and felt even more motivated by her compatriot, Eliud Kipchoge, who had just run the first ever sub-two-hour marathon in Nike’s new super shoe prototype. She went out at such a fast pace that most of her competitors fell away by the time she reached 10km, and by halfway she was more than one minute ahead of Paula Radcliffe’s long-standing world record, which had been in place since 2003. She went on to smash that time by 81 seconds, finishing in 2:14:04 and beating the next runner by almost seven minutes.

Another dominant year

In 2019, the gap between Nike and its rivals widened, with thirty-one of the thirty-six podium spots at that year’s World Marathon Majors going to athletes wearing the Vaporfly. It was so popular that at the January 2020 Hakone race in Japan, more than 80% of the field ran in the shoe. As well as the women’s marathon world record, a number of course records were broken, and there were even reports of athletes running for other brands competing in camouflaged versions of the Vaporfly just to keep up with their Nike-sponsored peers. Some members of the running community believed that the advantage it gave was too great, and in early 2020, with the Nike Alphafly now making people even faster, World Athletics introduced new restrictions on the design of athletic footwear.

Strict regulations

Certain athletes had been calling for World Athletics to change the laws of the sport to restrict so-called super shoes since the original Vaporfly came out, but at first it was hard for the organisation to determine exactly what part of the design was giving runners such a big advantage. By 2020, the answer was clear: it was a combination of an imposing stack of foam and a carbon-fibre plate. Following rumours that Kipchoge’s Alphafly had three such plates, World Athletics restricted all future running shoes to a single “rigid embedded plate or blade (of any material)”, stating that it could “be in more than one part but those parts must be located sequentially in one plane (not stacked or in parallel) and must not overlap.” The sole was also limited to “a maximum thickness of no more than 40mm”. In addition, the WA altered the rules around prototypes, stipulating that “From 30 April 2020, any shoe must have been available for purchase by any athlete on the open retail market (online or in store) for a period of four months before it can be used in competition.” Any shoe not meeting the criteria would be considered a prototype and thus not permitted in formal competition. World Athletics went further, ordering a deeper investigation into running shoe technology to establish its impact on the integrity of the sport. Nike responded by saying that the rules would “stifle innovation over the long term”, but many welcomed them and some thought that WA should have put even heavier restrictions on midsole thickness.

The 2020 Olympic Trials

Crucially for Nike, both the Vaporfly and the Alphafly remained legal racing shoes, and any records achieved in them were still considered valid. Both silhouettes continued to perform strongly in global competitions, and the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials demonstrated just how commanding Nike’s position was in the world of distance running. In a race where several athletes sponsored by other brands tried to hide the fact that they were wearing the Vaporfly by crudely painting the outer black, it emerged that 94% of participants who finished the race competed in shoes with a carbon-fibre plate. By this point, athletes had realised that they would be left behind if they didn’t, and despite the fact that Nike was no longer the only company producing such footwear, there were still 408 runners wearing some sort of Nike design at the event. This included 65 men and 148 women in the Vaporfly NEXT%, with 53 men and 95 women donning the new Alphafly. While Nike shoes only gained one podium finish in the women’s race, they dominated the men’s, with Galen Rupp and Jacob Riley taking first and second respectively in the Alphafly and Abdi Adbirahman finishing third in the Vaporfly. 

A surprising victory

In the months that followed, the more advanced Alphafly became the go to option for many top marathon runners. Nevertheless, some continued to use the Vaporfly, and Ethiopian Shura Kitata surprised everyone by winning the postponed 2020 London Marathon in the older shoe despite competing against Alphafly-wearers such as third-placed Sisay Lemma and the monumental talent of Eliud Kipchoge, who recorded his first marathon defeat in seven years by finishing in sixth place. In one of the most exciting finales to any marathon, Kitata out-sprinted Kenyan athlete Vincent Kipchumba, who was wearing the adidas AdiZero Adios Pro, thus proving that the German brand still had some work to do to catch up in the battle of the super shoes.

Another rule change

Due to the global pandemic, the 2020 London Marathon was held without spectators, and many other international events were cancelled, including four of the six Marathon Majors. This caused disruption for athletes like Kipchoge, whose subpar performance had been attributed by some to a lack of spectators, and affected Nike’s plans for its new releases. In the meantime, World Athletics altered some of its new regulations to accommodate prototype running shoes, which were a big part of the design process. Following this ruling, specific athletes would be permitted to wear so-called ‘development shoes’ at selected competitions within a defined period, usually of one year. This opened up the world of athletics once more to the possibility of runners competing in advanced footwear not available to other racers, leading to a highly competitive environment where different brands unleashed more and more powerful super shoes over the next few years.

Extending the Vaporfly series

Largely thanks to the Alphafly, Nike managed to stay ahead of its rivals in many races, but the brand remained committed to extending the Vaporfly series, launching the Nike ZoomX Vaporfly NEXT% 2 in early 2021. The new design shared many features with its predecessor, including the tried-and-tested combination of carbon-fibre plate and ZoomX midsole. In fact, the sole unit remained virtually the same, with the bulk of the changes occurring across the upper. Most notably, Nike swapped out the Vaporweave fabric for an engineered mesh that was more breathable and a little softer, ultimately making it more comfortable in several ways. Synthetic overlays around the forefoot gave a touch more durability, while the offset lacing system was updated with elements inspired by the Alphafly, such as the more secure notched laces and the carefully placed padding on the slightly reshaped tongue, which eased lace pressure. Like the earlier iterations, the Vaporfly NEXT% 2 had distinctive text printed onto its midsole that referenced its scientific background and successful history with the words “Measured in the lab. Verified with medals & records.” and “Engineered in the exact specifications of world-class runners.”

A return to form

Looking to bounce back from a disappointing 2020, Kipchoge donned the new Vaporfly for the NN Mission Marathon in April 2021. The pandemic was still causing havoc at sporting events around the world, and the invitation-only marathon had to be moved from Hamburg to Twente Airport in the Netherlands, where it took place without a live audience. Before the race, Kipchoge suggested that the London Marathon had shown him how to run without a crowd cheering him on, and this became clear as he returned to his best with a solid victory and a time more befitting of such a wonderful champion. It was the ideal preparation for the delayed Tokyo Olympics, which were due to take place behind closed doors in July and August of 2021. In familiar scenes, dozens of runners wore the Vaporfly NEXT% 2, a distinctive white and pink colourway standing out clearly on their feet. Kipchoge was on the top of his game once more, staying with the lead pack as it gradually dwindled to just a few men. After passing 30km, he slowly broke away from the remaining challengers, going on to defend his title ahead of Abdi Nageeye of the Netherlands and Bashir Abdi of Belgium, both of whom ran in the Nike Vaporfly. The shoe was less dominant in the women’s race, but it still helped Brigid Kosgei to win the Olympic silver medal.

The magic of Kelvin Kiptum

Over the next few years, the Alphafly was adopted by more and more elite runners, resulting in further record-breaking feats that outdid even those of the Vaporfly. Despite the presence of a more advanced design, the original super shoe maintained a strong following amongst a broad range of runners, and it still found some opportunities to shine thanks to the stunning talent of a young Kenyan named Kelvin Kiptum. He ran just three marathons in his short career, winning all of them in course record times. This unprecedented streak culminated in Kiptum breaking the world record at the Chicago Marathon in 2023. That day, he was wearing the Alphafly, but for his other two victories, he ran in the Vaporfly NEXT% 2. His first competitive marathon was in Valencia in December 2022, where he showed his potential by becoming just the third man to go under two hours and two minutes, with a time of 2:01:53 – by far the quickest debut ever recorded. Just a few months later, he ran even faster at the London Marathon, breaking Kipchoge’s course record and falling just sixteen seconds short of his world record.

The Nike ZoomX Vaporfly NEXT% 3

Not long before Kiptum’s London Marathon success, Nike had announced the release of its next super shoe, the Vaporfly 3. Billed as “an all-round racing shoe that can help runners cover any distance” and built based on feedback from both elite and everyday athletes, it boasted a smoother transition through the foot, better stability and even more energy return than previous models. These enhancements were delivered by the “reductive ZoomX midsole geometry”, whose convex forefoot, bulging heel and wedge-shaped rear brought greater comfort and stability. A slightly thinner Waffle outsole with added perforations dropped the weight of the shoe while also making room for an additional slither of responsive ZoomX foam that allowed Nike to max out the 40mm height limit. Meanwhile, the upper was woven together from tough Flyknit yarns for a lightweight, breathable and supportive feel, with an offset heel seam to reduce rubbing. One of the earliest colourways to be released was the iconic Prototype, which honoured the extensive development process of the original Vaporfly with special design details such as the weartester’s identification number printed on the sole and an exaggerated sidewall swoosh overlapping the midsole of the upper, just like the logo on the Breaking2 Vaporfly.

A revolutionary running shoe

The story of the Nike Vaporfly began over a decade ago, but it continues to captivate the running community to this day. It was one of the most pioneering shoe designs in history, causing a seismic shift in the footwear industry that virtually every brand, athlete and governing body had to react to. None of its achievements would have been possible without the hundreds of athletes who gave their time, energy and data to Nike’s research team, and Eliud Kipchoge is a large part of why the Vaporfly became such a global phenomenon. By pushing the limits of human endeavour, he showed that no human is limited, inspiring thousands of people to become better runners in the process. In many ways, Nike did the same thing for technology, proving that it was still possible to drive the boundaries of innovation forwards by taking a radically different approach to footwear design. Although the Vaporfly was maligned by some, it has been loved by many, and running culture would not be the same without it. The Vaporfly’s legacy is such that it will never be forgotten, either by those competing in it or by those watching in awe as the world’s greatest distance runners broke record after record. It is simply the most groundbreaking running shoe in the history of sport.