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{{DISPLAYTITLE:Nike Vaporfly 4% Review}}
The Nike Vaporfly 4% is a much-hyped shoe, which is based on the shoes Nike developed for their attempt to break the 2-hour marathon. It's an expensive shoe, retailing for $250, and even at that price it's hard to find. There are rumors that Nike are restricting supplies to drive up interest. The shoe is unusual in that it has a carbon fiber plate running through the midsole. Given all the hype, I was not expecting much from the Vaporfly 4%, but there are aspects to the shoe that have really impressed me. I'd say it's a mixture of the awesome and awful, though not in quite the ways I expected. The Vaporfly is hard to rate, as it's a "best of the best" running shoe except for the risk of injury due to its instability.
* The shoe has remarkable cushioning for its weight, with my measurements putting it close to the top of the table. I ran with a [[Hoka Clayton]] on one foot and the Vaporfly on the other and the Clayton felt hard and dead by comparison. The Vaporfly uses a new type of foam made of Pebax, a compound that has previously been used in harder materials like Mizuno's Wave Plate. It will be interesting to see this foam in other shoes, especially something closer to a "racing flat". There is a rumored Reebok FloatRide Racer using Pebax foam, but no details.
* When you wear the shoe, it has an amazing amount of bounce. It's far more than you get in TPU shoes like the [[Altra Escalante]], and feels like there's a spring under your foot. It seems like the carbon fiber plate is acting more as a spring for the rear of the shoe than for toe off. This bounce is immediately obvious, even walking around, and feels different to every other shoe I've tried. Even at the end of a marathon length run the bounce is noticeable and helped me keep up the pace. (Check out my review of the carbon fiber [[VKTRY Insoles]] for comparison.)
* Initially, the outsole had surprisingly little grip, feeling slick and unsure on anything that isn't a firm surface. After I'd put some miles on them, the grip seemed to improve and was remarkably good, except on gritty asphalt where the grit acts like marbles.
* I found the toe box was not as bad as I expected, though running 20 miles without cutting open the toe box resulted in a minor blister.
Overall, I feel like I'm faster in the Vaporfly than other shoes by a noticeable amount, which is quite astonishing. This is hard to confirm, but my Heart Rate and perceived exertion seem noticeably lower for a given pace and [[Stryd| Stryd Power Estimate]]. On the other hand, I feel like the Vaporfly will increase my has a real risk of injury rate dramatically, putting more adding stress on my to ankles and thus my knees. After many hours of consideration, and hundreds of miles of running, I've rated the Vaporfly as "best of the best" in spite of its many flaws. It's expensive, almost impossible to find, and risks injury, but it's just so good that I think if you can handle the extra stress, it's just too good to ignore. {{H:WhatToLookForInShoes}}
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File:Nike Vaporfly 4%-top.jpg|Nike Vaporfly 4% top
