Nike Luna Racer

One thing I would not call these shoes is a lightweight trainer. They are super light from what I can tell. Maybe 4 or 5 ounces. Significantly lighter then the lightweight trainers I have, such as the Precisions.

I wonder if they are giving the women these shoes because they are discontinued and want to get rid of them?! I hope they wouldn't send women at the trials crappy shoes!

Here's a picture:

http://niketalk.yuku.com/topic/39874/t/NIKE-RUNNING-2008-Releases.html

Actually, they were never in a catalog, either in the actual hard copy of the dealers catalog OR the Holiday '08 nike.net site. They were offered on a supplemental handout to RSG accounts. Whether they will continue to be offered in the future or not, remains to be seen. In my retail running shop, I have them (both racers AND trainers for men and women)booked for delivery on July 1st. Customarily, this means that we'll have them on roughly June 24th.

take it and run! wrote:

Don't forget, Nike does more for women's running than any company in the USA with the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco every October.

That is the worst argument ever. That's like me giving a female runner a dollar, then coming on this board and telling you that I do more for female runners than most everyone else on this board so you should stop making me out to be the bad guy. For a company founded by runners, Nike probably doesn't give 0.5% to women athletes of what they give to basketball players in contracts alone. Then we have baseball, football, soccer. Any female runner want a free $1?

Ok genius...name which athletic shoe company does more for running in the US than Nike?

adidas? Allyson Felix, Jen Rhines and a few other track athletes. Boston Marathon and a few other races, including Golden West.

New Balance? Race for the Cure...I'll give them that, along with the Armory. Athletes? A few decent ones here and there.

Brooks? Beyond the Hansons, a few small races here and there, txRUNNERgirl's sister and the Brooks ID program, not really.

Mizuno? Not noticeable.

Asics? Deena, the NYC Marathon. Probably close to New Balance in involvement with women's running.

Ryka? A few women's events, but seriously, can you take them seriously as a brand? Please.

NIKE? Yeah baby! Sanya Richards, Lauren Fleshman, Shalane Flanagan, Kara Goucher, let me keep going on the athletes. Nike San Francisco Marathon, Nike Plus, etc., plus Nike Team Nationals, Border Clash, the two big high school meets, etc.

BTW, I never once mentioned the team sports. That's irrelevant in this thread...I simply talked about running.

Ok Genius...

tell me what portion of Nike's Budget goes to supporting the sport it was founded on. Just because Nike's "doing more for the sport" doesn't mean it's doing anything near what it could do to help a floundering sport that it was founded by. Better yet tell me the ration of give back to the sport as compared to the amount they make off "running shoes". Something tells me it'll be far less than 1% while companies like mizuno, brooks, and ascis will be far greater than 1%.

Just because you give more than anyone else, doesn't mean you're a hero of the sport. Mizuno, Ascis, and Brooks all spend a higher proportion of their budget on runners. They're giving a far higher percent. Fact is Nike only does it so that they don't completely lose their market, while other companies do it to help produce a better sport of running. Nike is what's wrong with running, sorry if you don't understand that. They're backdooring the sport and propping up the football/basketball image.

You're obviously trolling, so I will bite...

Doesn't matter what you think...Nike's a huge company, and the stockholders and the management will do whatever the hell they want to protect the bottom line.

They spend more $ on the sport than what these other companies do...as a proportion of total revenues, it's a lot less, but they get away with it because they're good at what they do.

Do I blame them for investing $65 million on Kevin Durant, $95 million on LeBron, or who knows how much on Tiger Woods?

Not one bit.

Interesting, the shoes are called Nike Lunar +, meaning they have the whole iPod thingy going on. But you're not suppose to race with headsets on these days. Obviously I realize the super fast actually wear racing flats for speed workouts and could use their iPods then. It just seems odd to add that feature to a high tech racing flat.

sandman wrote:

What does that mean when you say the shoe is "way too built up"? It sounds like it's a super light shoe, so how is it built up? I guess some of this is subjective. If you like a harder ride then these aren't for you. I personally like a very soft, cushy ride so these seem to be great.

"Built up" refers to the heigh of the heel and forefoot off the ground. A good flat is very low to the ground and has minimal heel-forefoot drop to maximize stability and power, while the Lunar racer has a heigh and heel to toe drop closer to that of a trainer (24mm-12mm is standard, I would guess the Lunar is 22-12).

AW78 wrote:

Actually, they were never in a catalog, either in the actual hard copy of the dealers catalog OR the Holiday '08 nike.net site. They were offered on a supplemental handout to RSG accounts. Whether they will continue to be offered in the future or not, remains to be seen. In my retail running shop, I have them (both racers AND trainers for men and women)booked for delivery on July 1st. Customarily, this means that we'll have them on roughly June 24th.

So if these may not come out to the public, could they be worth something?

If they are built up, that must mean that they would be good to wear for a distance race. After wearing them today, I do agree that they feel more like a lightweight trainer from the perspective that you can do a lot of volume in them and not feel like your achilles has been strained or your legs beat up as much. They do feel like they can hold up to the marathon distance. They were also very responsive when running fast.. very springy.

Beaverton born and raised wrote:

Nike has done more for american [sic] running than any other running corporation and how can anybody give this support such a negative connotation...

So what? They STARTED out as a running company and what they do for running as a portion of their profit margin is a pittance, even compared with other "running corporation".

Which running store? I would actually like to get my hands on a pair of the racers....!

Come on, you can do better than that.

what part of "booked for delivery" to a store did you not understand?

sandman wrote:

If they are built up, that must mean that they would be good to wear for a distance race. After wearing them today, I do agree that they feel more like a lightweight trainer from the perspective that you can do a lot of volume in them and not feel like your achilles has been strained or your legs beat up as much. They do feel like they can hold up to the marathon distance. They were also very responsive when running fast.. very springy.

Really, very springy? When I tried them, they felt very spongy and unresponsive. I'm used to training and racing up through marathon in the Adizero RC and Adizero Pro, though, which are very firm and responsive shoes.

I guess it's a subjective thing. To me the shoes felt springy in that when I landed in the forefoot area during intervals, they felt bouncy. But I am not one who likes a firm shoe, I prefer very soft. So you might call a shoe responsive when it is firmer, whereas I call responsive when it's squooshy and bouncy. Or maybe responsive is just not the right word I should be using. Years ago I loved the Adidas Taper, but they discontinued it and my heart was broken.

My major concern is that as soft as they feel (I tried a pair on today), there might be some energy loss in the compression on the midsole, thus making them a bit less responsive when you are trying to get quick turnover in a racing situation. Biomechanically, a hypersoft midsole does not necessarily translate to faster running. They might allow your legs to take less of a beating in longer races, but a firmer midsole is quicker in shorter races. Regardless, it will be interesting to see how the Lunar Racers perform at various distances. The best analogy that I can think of is how a very soft track feels good on your legs, but doesn't feel as "quick" as a Mondo surface.

soft == unresponsive