The concept of Nike Free is absolutely excellent. However, I still think the currect Free has too much of heel built in. I'd rather not start another thread on "minimalist" shoes but I do run in Japanese ASICS racing flats. I just did 1:45 on trail in them yesterday. These were directly from Japan and, in fact, Arthur himself laced up for me in New York last year. One of the last talks I had with Arthur was about shoes. These guys feel like slippers; just as Arthur would have liked.
Again, it could be an individual issue and I don't like people yelling at each other, saying a certain thing "didn't work for me!" Lydiard was a rather heavy heel striker and some of his shoes, Converse in particular, reflected that.
In summary, you could say that the followings are what Lydiard would say about running shoes:
1) Shoe should be light and flexible
2) Shoe should not have any pressure point
3) Shoe should not rstrict any natural movement of foot
4) Shoe should fit around the shape of your foot