Nike has officially announced that the new Nike Vaporfly 4 running shoe will be released in March.
It’s basically a whole new shoe, with a completely different upper than the previous version, a completely different midsole, and a redesigned outsole.
The Vaporfly line is one of Nike’s flagship products, a marathon distance shoe with a carbon plate for racing. Nike also has two marathon distance carbon plate running shoe product lines, the Vaporfly and the Alphafly. Of the two, Nike has made no secret of its goal for the Vaporfly to be a race running shoe used by a wider range of runners, even amateur runners, and the Alphafly to be a higher level running shoe. With the changes of the Vaporfly 4 they want to strengthen this ambition. My personal experience was the opposite, as an amateur runner I preferred running in the Alphafly 3 shoe to the Vaporfly 3 shoe. I will be curious to see if my opinion changes with the Vaporfly 4 running shoe.
Nike Vaporfly 4 running shoes
What we do know for sure is that the Vaporfly 4 is lighter than its predecessor. Nike says that the Vaporfly 4 is about 10% lighter than its predecessor (the predecessor weighed 184 grams, from which you subtract 10% to get 166 grams). But Nike also says it is 20 grams lighter than the first Vaporfly, the VaporFly 4%, which was 196 grams. Both claims are close to the truth, with the men’s version weighing in at 169 grams and the women’s version at 147 grams.
Upper
The upper has changed significantly, but remains a lightweight upper optimized for performance and not comfort. The upper is made of a completely new mesh material, which I’m happy about because the upper on the previous version was a bit over the top. It was a loosely woven mesh material with unnecessarily large ventilation holes that made it less durable. The Vaporfly 4 upper feels stronger and thicker.
The previous iconic diagonal lacing system has been replaced with a traditional mid running lacing system, which I’m happy with, I think it will be more usable.
The tongue of the shoe is still a thin tongue, but the material has also been changed, so I expect it to be a little easier to put on, but most importantly it is not as long as the previous version, which had a distractingly long tongue.
The padding of the heel collar has been increased a bit, there is still only one padding strip along the inside of the heel collar, but it has been made a bit thicker. The heel collar has a softer top edge, which is good news as many runners have cut their ankle bones with the previous sharp edge.
Midsole
The midsole is still made entirely of ZoomX foam and features the same FlytePlate carbon plate, but the carbon plate has a new geometry, it’s courved differently. The overall geometry of the midsole has changed, with a slightly wider heel, which is necessary to improve the not so good stability of the previous version. The previous 8mm drop has been reduced to 6mm and the midfoot has been lowered by 3-4mm (no exact numbers yet but 37-35mm at the heel and 31-29mm at the forefoot).
The new shape of the midfoot may be familiar from the side view, as it is very similar to the silhouette of the Alphafly 3.
The cutout of the midsole is larger. A large longitudinal groove runs from the center to the heel of the shoe, exposing the carbon plate. With this solution, the weight of the shoe can be reduced and the torsional stiffness will be lower.
Outsole
The outsole has also undergone significant changes. The traditional, iconic waffle pattern has been replaced with a completely new solution that covers a larger area of the midsole and is also thicker. The heel also features two rubber pieces.
At first glance, and based on the available data, I’m optimistic and looking forward to running in it.
Nike Vaporfly history
The naming of the Nike Vaporfly 4 is finally consistent, after the Vaporfly 3 comes the Vaporfly 4. However, this 5th version is not the 4th, and the naming of Vaporfly running shoes has been completely untraceable, so I’ll just list the iterations of the Vaporfly:
1: Nike Vaporfly 4%
The first Vaporfly was released in 2017, which is why the 4% is in the name, because it increased running efficiency and economy by 4% in lab tests.
It received an update in 2018, but it wasn’t a new version as it just got a new upper. The shoe with the new upper is called the Nike Vaporfly 4% Flyknit.
2. Nike Vaporfly Next%
In 2019 came the new version, which Nike didn’t give a specific number for the percentage it increases running efficiency by, so they simply called it the Next Percentage, or NEXT%.
3: Nike Vaporfly Next% 2
The naming started to get complicated with the release of the newer version in 2021. Here, Nike didn’t talk about efficiency improvements, but simply called it the second updated version of the Next% model: Vaporfly Next% 2.
4: Nike Vaporfly 3
In 2023, the next version was released, called the Vaporfly 3. It was actually the 4th iteration, and the name was misunderstood because it dropped the “Next%”, so everyone just called it the Vaporfly 3, even though it was still called the Vaporfly Next% 3 when it was released. This is an understandable numbering, Next% 2 is followed by Next% 3, but this is not the third Vaporfly, it is the fourth.
5: Nike Vaporfly 4
The official name of the new version no longer includes the Next% and is consistent in that it follows version 3 with 4, but in fact this is the 5th iteration of the Vaporfly, or should be called the Vaporfly Next% 4.
