A close look at Bernard Lagat's spikes

That page says that the custom spike designed for Michael Johnson was "meant to be worn for no more than 40 seconds." Did they not realize that he was going to be wearing them for a 400? Or maybe the plan was for Johnson to kick them off with 35 meters left.

JimG wrote:

Some major errors in the release but that doesn't detract from the shoes. I saw them earlier this week and they are to other spikes what the MacBook Air is to other laptops. Lighter than the old Mayflys but more durable.

The mayflys are flats, not spikes.

This all goes to show just how out-of-touch Nike, once a running company, is with the sport.

Ha it looks like nike reads the boards because they fixed most of the errors that were listed!! Too funny!

the LunaRacer looks like it has a way higher heel than most other flats. It IS a marathon shoe...but still...

also note that when they wrote "worn for no more than 40 seconds" they didn't indicate if that meant running in them or just wearing them. one could assume that they exploded on your feet after sitting in them for 40 seconds.

Believe it or not, several Nike running folks actually read LetsRun.com. A couple of their designers are known to actually skim the message boards.

picker of nits wrote:

also note that when they wrote "worn for no more than 40 seconds" they didn't indicate if that meant running in them or just wearing them. one could assume that they exploded on your feet after sitting in them for 40 seconds.

That's freakin hilarious!actually I would buy them for that reason . Kind of like the exploding golf ball trick except at track meets, " Here try these spikes."

I'll have to watch the video of that race again so that I can see his spikes disintegrate half way through the race. I can't believe I didn't even notice it happening when I watched it live.

yesterday I met Nick Rogers at the arcadia meet and he was wearing i think what was a variation of the Lunar shoe... or maybe it was the actual shoe... it looked like a good flat and was really light

train, thoroughly prepare yourself, THEN you can worry about the shoes

I came immediately with just one look at those spikes.

flywire wrote:

http://nikemedia.com/beijing/en/product/nike_zoom_victory_spike

Um, what "winning streak" did Lagat see that made him want to try the spikes?

If I recall, wasn't Webb smooth like butter--on a roll, from the US nationals to the time he ran his 800 pr last summer?

That might be the streak that prompted Lagat to ask for the spikes, but I could be wrong.

The text only mentions Webb's mile AR, nothing else.

There are more images and information on the shoes including the weights at this article:

http://www.shoeguide.co.uk/exec/articles/new_technologies_and_shoes_being_launched_by_nike

They deleted a reference to another race, so that's what the streak originally referred to. Now, it makes it seem as if Webb was just so freakin' fast that he looked like a streak running!

how come the photo of the spike is not even close to what the nike image looks like. it looks like a totally different spike and definitely not as breathtaking. i thought it looks boring.

anyone else agree on this?

Yes. Not so cool. The colourways different and the Flywire is just white.

Compare:

http://www.shoeguide.co.uk/media/main/nike_victory.jpg

To:

http://www.shoeguide.co.uk/media/main/nike_zoom_victory_spike.jpg

I guess anything looks cool if you light it right.

The first link is to the USA colorway; the second is the colorway (white/gold) they're giving to athletes competing for federations who don't have a deal with them.

There will be a version in Kenya, China, Russia & Germany colors in addition to USA (five biggest federations Nike sponsors). Don't know about teams like Ukraine, Qatar, Eritrea, etc., unless they have something on the side for their top athletes who run for those countries.