Discontinued · road · Race day · $250
The shoe that started the super-shoe era: ZoomX plus a full carbon plate.
Built for race day, at a target pace of 5:00–7:30 /mi on road.
This model is no longer in production. The closest shoe you can buy today is Nike Vaporfly 4.
Nike tuned this midsole balanced (3/5 on our cushioning scale). Energy return is above average: the midsole rebounds well without feeling unstable. 31 mm of heel stack keeps you low and connected, with more ground feel than most current trainers. Combined, the ride reads as explosive at 5/5 responsiveness.
A full-length carbon plate stiffens the forefoot and works with the foam as a lever: it smooths the transition off the toes and cuts the effort of holding fast paces. It also asks for speed — at easy paces a carbon plate feels stiff and does little for you, and it is the main reason super-shoes wear out sooner than trainers.
A tall 10 mm drop tips weight forward off the heel, which usually suits heel strikers and calves that dislike low-drop shoes. The rocker is aggressive: the sole is curved and stiff enough to tip you into the next stride on its own, which saves the calf on long runs but feels strange when you slow right down. The forefoot is stiff, so it rolls rather than bends — a lever, not a slipper. It is a neutral platform with no built-in correction.
The toe-box is narrow and performance-oriented; wide-footed runners should try before buying. It runs small; most runners size up a half. Expect roughly 200 miles from the outsole, about $1.25 per mile at $250.
For the foams and plates Nike uses across its line, read the Nike brand guide.
Measured against the 542 currently-available shoes in the catalog. The bar shows where this shoe sits in that range.
Weight
185 g / 6.5 oz
90 g lighter than the catalog median of 275 g
Heel stack
31 mm
5 mm lower than the catalog median of 36 mm
Drop
10 mm
4 mm higher than the catalog median of 6 mm
Price
$250
90 pricier than the catalog median of 160
Responsiveness
5 / 5
Catalog median 3 / 5
Cushioning
3 / 5
Catalog median 4 / 5
Energy return
4 / 5
Catalog median 3 / 5
Durability
~200 mi
Catalog median ~400 mi
Within the Nike line it is lighter than the brand's median (295 g / 10.4 oz) and sits lower than its median stack (36 mm).
Current shoes with the nearest combination of weight, stack, drop, foam feel and plate.
New Balance FuelCell SuperComp Pacer v3
190 g / 6.7 oz · 32 mm · 6 mm drop · Carbon · $180
Short-course carbon racer for 5K to half marathon.
Adidas Adizero Takumi Sen 10(2024)
196 g / 6.9 oz · 33 mm · 6 mm drop · Carbon · $180
Firm, brutal 5K–10K racer. All snap, no lounging.
On Cloudboom Echo 3
225 g / 7.9 oz · 37 mm · 9 mm drop · Carbon · $290
Carbon marathon racer with a rockered, aggressive toe-off.
Brooks Hyperion 2(2024)
201 g / 7.1 oz · 32 mm · 8 mm drop · — · $140
Light, firm and fast — a plateless racer for shorter distances.