Nike Air Zoom Vapor X Glove 'University Gold'
Colorway: Black/University Gold · Style code: AQ0568-001 · Release date: May 20, 2019 · Price: $1579 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: NikeCourt Air Zoom Vapor Cage 4 (CD0424-107) · Women's Nike Zoom Vapor 12 PRM (IR0651-100) · Nike Zoom Vapor 12 PRM (IR3980-100) · Women's Nike Zoom Vapor 12 PRM (IH1705-601) · Nike Zoom Vapor 12 PRM (HV1469-200)
The most interesting thing about this tennis shoe comes from basketball. Nike built it with a shroud over the upper (a lightweight cover that keeps clay and debris out of the lacing), and the mechanism is lifted from the closure used on Gary Payton's signature shoes in the late 1990s, a system nobody had reason to revive until a clay court problem called for it. The rest is the Vapor X, Nike's fast tennis model of the period, with Zoom Air cushioning and an internal fit sleeve, re-outsoled for the surface: clay demands a pattern that releases the ground rather than biting into it, since players slide into shots instead of stopping dead. This version pairs black with university gold, which reads unusually formal for a shoe designed to spend its life covered in orange dust. It arrived in the spring of 2019, timed to the clay season.