Honest Opinions - How much of the Nike 4% stuff is hype and how much of it is stuff that will actually get you faster?

0 % hype.

jumping up and down on a trampoline will enable the athlete to jump higher as compared to jumping on a hardwood floor.

Exactly.

They are literally carbon spring loaded, they will make you bounce along in a manner that a conventional shoe cannot match. Your body will physically be responding to a different device on your feet whilst running.

-1000% Hype.

It's like running on a trampoline, + it reduces muscle damage so much. I always end up with sore calf after doing interval work. Tried them the other day for the first time and oh lord! No soreness at all, zero, nada, nil! Amazing!

They are the best marathon shoe on the market. Carbon plate aside, I think the fact that it is a super light shoe that actually offers support for the marathon distance is so good.

Anyone who isn't a Nike shill care to respond?

I believe the shoe provides some benefits, mostly with prevebring muscle damage later in races.

I did meet the brother of one of the people who helped designed the shoe back when breaking 2 was going on and he said everything surrounding the shoe was totally fake and that it was all just conjecture of what would work. Not sure how much of that was his brothers opinion, but I thought it was interesting.

Marathon racer question wrote:

Honest Opinions - How much of the Nike 4% stuff is hype and how much of it is stuff that will actually get you faster?

at best maybe 1%, more than likely it is just a placebo. in 4 yrs time rekrunner will have a new magna opus to boast about, he will call it

"a closer look at the 4% era marathon times" and go on and on and on about how the shoes did nothing, and anyone arguing against him will be mocked, insulted and probably banned. johnO will hop on the bandwagon and say "if the shoes did give a 4% gain, the runners feet would start on fire, thermodanimcs! learn something!" and somehow coevett will turn it into a rant about coe being the best runner of all time....and to round it out elK will somehow say the 4% shoes is the white mans conspiracy to make kenyans look bad.

it will be a crazy time for sure

They had to bump 5 minutes of BQ time for 2020. There was a chart showing a # of rejections last 2 years. No coincidence I bet.

I am a shoe tester for a lot of different brands and i've tested the most popular racers from HOKA (Carbon Rocket, Evo Racer, Carbon Rocket Plus), Adidas Sub2, Reebok Floatride Pro, and many more. The Nike Vaporfly 4% are the real deal. The hype and marketing are extraordinary. However, the 4% are the most responsive and well cushioned racing shoe on the market at this time for 10k and up. There is a very good reason why all these brands are trying to compete with it.

The way Zoom X is manufactured allows this shoe to be springy and provide magnificent energy return without sacrificing weight. Weight is the big issue with most TPU based shoes such as the technology seen in Adidas Boost, Saucony Everun, and Brooks DNA Amp. They're all responsive, but too much weight. Zoom X is manufactured very specifically and there is no efficient way to manufacturer the shoe which is why it is unable to be mass produce for the entire population.

To honestly answer your question, the Vapor Fly 4% is currently the best racing shoe on the market. It is lighter, more responsive, and more cushioned than your adios, carbon rocket, saucony freedom. The only lighter shoe is the floatride, but the 4% is superior in terms of cushion and responsiveness.

DO you work for Nike too???

Nope, I dont work for Nike. Wouldnt be able to handle the stress of walking on egg shells everyday at work. I'm just stating my honest opinion. I just have a big interest in racing shoes and when there is one that stands out from the crowd, its noticeable. Its kind of like when boost technology first came to the scene and the Adios was known as the best marathon racing shoe. The Adios still was the best marathon racing shoe until Nike bought a very expensive foam from an Aerospace company and threw a carbon fiber plate in it. So much research and flawless execution.

Trust, but verify.

Please provide links to your past shoe reviews.

The sooner this is banned the better.

Clear as day artificial aid.

I appreciate you trusting me and believing me, but most shoe reviews are done in person either on a secured online server or a physical document to prevent any duplication of the information distributed.

m!ndweak wrote:

at best maybe 1%, more than likely it is just a placebo.

You should take a look at the data the NYT put together on this. I have no plans to buy the shoe, but the numbers are pretty convincing.

Shoe Tester wrote:

.. but too much weight. Zoom X is manufactured very specifically and there is no efficient way to manufacturer the shoe which is why it is unable to be mass produce for the entire population.

I have a hard time believing this. There's no rare raw materials/chemicals in there. If production is in fact slower than other shoes, they could double the lines to produce double the shoes. I'm not sure there is a real shortage either, if everyone running marathons seems to be wearing them. Don't believe everything Nike tells you.

Precisely 4% of the 4% is not hype. The shoes are 0.16% more efficient than running in walmart brand skater shoes.

salted jock wrote:

m!ndweak wrote:

at best maybe 1%, more than likely it is just a placebo.

You should take a look at the data the NYT put together on this. I have no plans to buy the shoe, but the numbers are pretty convincing.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/07/18/upshot/nike-vaporfly-shoe-strava.html

EHhh, not so sure. Other shoes (ie, switching to) are also associated with big improvements in this analysis. A study showing that switching from baseline shoe to shoe A = 3% gain and switching from baseline shoe to shoe B = 3%-4% gain....and that uses such an imperfect data set....does not convince *me* that there's anything special about shoe B over shoe A. There's just no getting around the association between (1) training harder and getting more serious and (2) choosing to switch to the most hyped, most expensive shoe on the market. And there's also no accounting for placebo effect.

Mate, I hate NIKE, Paula Radcliffe, Mo Farah, Reduction clauses et al. but these shoes are the real deal. Great for marathon/half marathon pace efforts 10/10