Nike ZoomX Vaporfly Next% 'Black'
Colorway: Black/White · Style code: AO4568-001 · Release date: November 30, 2020 · Price: $191 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Nike ZoomX Vaporfly NEXT% 'Be True' (AO4568-101) · Nike ZoomX Vaporfly NEXT% 'Hyper Jade' (AO4568-102) · Nike ZoomX VaporFly NEXT% 'Ekiden White Racer Blue' (AO4568-103) · Nike ZoomX Vaporfly NEXT% 'Electric Green' (AO4568-300) · Nike ZoomX VaporFly NEXT% 'Valerian Blue' (AO4568-400)
On May 6, 2017 Nike put three runners on the banking at Monza, the Formula One circuit outside Milan, and tried to produce a marathon under two hours. Eliud Kipchoge, Zersenay Tadese and Lelisa Desisa ran behind a rotating screen of pacers and a lead car, and Kipchoge came through in 2:00:25. None of it counted - the pacing arrangement put the run outside the rules - but the project had a second output besides the time. The shoe built for it, the Vaporfly Elite, became a commercial line.
Kipchoge went under two hours eventually, running 1:59:40 at the Ineos 1:59 Challenge in Vienna on October 12, 2019, again in conditions that ruled out a record. His legal marks came at Berlin: 2:01:39 in September 2018, then 2:01:09 in September 2022.
The NEXT% is the consumer end of that program. The upper is VaporWeave rather than mesh, chosen because it takes on less water over a long race. The midsole is a tall slab of ZoomX foam with a carbon-fiber plate through it, stiff enough to resist the toes bending at the end of each stride.