Nike Vomero 17 'Ashen Slate'
Colorway: Ashen Slate/Light Smoke Grey/Photon Dust/Metallic Silver · Style code: FB1309-403 · Release date: September 20, 2024 · Price: $105 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Nike Vomero 17 'Black Volt' (FB1309-001) · Nike Vomero 17 Black Sneakers (FB1309-002) · Nike Vomero 17 'Sea Glass Midnight Navy' (FB1309-003) · Nike Vomero 17 'Black White' (FB1309-004) · Nike Vomero 17 'Black Bronzine' (FB1309-006)
The Vomero exists because Nike went looking outside the United States for what runners actually wanted. Designer Aaron Cooper developed the first one while based in Amsterdam, and what German and neighbouring European runners kept asking for was premium cushioning rather than lightness. The project was called Nirvana internally before it took the name of Vomero, a hilltop district of Naples.
The original paired Cushlon, a soft EVA compound, with a full-length Zoom Air unit, and the line has stayed on the plush side of the range ever since. Later versions added a second Zoom unit, then moved through React and ZoomX as those foams arrived, always positioned as the cushioned option rather than the fast one.
Ashen Slate is a muted blue-grey on the seventeenth version, dated to September 2024 at $160. By that point the Vomero sat as Nike's max-cushion daily trainer, a step up from the Pegasus in both stack height and price.