Nike ZoomX Vaporfly Next% 4 and Nike ZoomX Streakfly 2: a look at the innovation behind the brand's latest racing shoes
Product news
Whether running a road mile or a marathon, these racers help athletes achieve top speeds.
For decades, Nike has prioritised innovation and performance across its products. In 2016, the brand innovated in a big way with the introduction of a new category of race-day footwear known as super shoes. The Nike Vaporfly 4% was the pioneer in the category, and the goal of the shoe was simple: to help everyone from professional marathoners to casual racers chase their personal best by giving them a tool to perform at peak efficiency.
In addition to a carbon plate, which provides a rigid surface for runners to push off, super shoes are constructed with a springy Nike ZoomX foam. This makes them light and bouncy, giving them an optimal energy return that helps maximise speed. Over the past nine years, each Nike super shoe generation has kept these primary features centre stage while incorporating improved technology and product design to deliver better results for runners. In 2025, the Nike product team released two advanced racers: the Vaporfly Next% 4 and the Streakfly 2.
Vaporfly Next% 4: the latest iteration of the original super shoe
Just as motorsport engineers constantly tweak their cars to improve speed and performance, Nike took a similarly iterative approach to enhance the performance of the Vaporfly Next% 4 while maintaining the essence of what made the original Vaporfly such a game-changer. To that end, Bumbalough says he and his team focused on making the shoe lighter and more propulsive and the forefoot softer. As the team worked to hit these benchmarks, elite runners, including Joshua Cheptegei and Mohammed Ahmed, tested it.
"For this update, we weren't looking to revolutionise the design. The Vaporfly is the original super shoe, a pioneer in racing footwear. We wanted to evolve a shoe that we believe is already successful".
Andrew Bumbalough, Nike lead product line manager.
The result is a shoe that is 10% lighter than its predecessor—a men's size 7.5 is just 169 grams, which is slightly heavier than a baseball—but doesn't sacrifice performance. Like the Vaporfly Next% 3, the shoe has a full-length carbon-fibre Flyplate, but the plate's angle has been updated from 15 to 20 degrees, enhancing energy storage and propulsion. The heel-toe drop (the difference between the height of a shoe's heel and its forefoot) has also shifted from 8mm to 6mm, with an additional 2mm of Nike ZoomX foam in the forefoot for better energy return.
"Every couple millimetres of ZoomX that you're able to add underfoot gives the shoe a 'bigger battery' for energy to be stored", Bumbalough explains. "This energy is then released as you go through your stride". The extra foam also creates the feel of "spongy softness", which Bumbalough says will better meet the needs of athletes who felt the Vaporfly Next% 3 was too firm in the forefoot.
Runners will also notice changes to the shoe's upper. "The mesh is not only lighter, but it's also more comfortable. It provides a better, one-to-one fit with the foot. We also added slightly elastic laces, which allow the upper to fit more comfortably and snuggly across the foot", Bumbalough explains.
Bumbalough also noted that Nike is celebrating the Vaporfly's legacy as the original super shoe by marking "the original super shoe" directly on the midsole, making it the ultimate racer for super shoe fans.
The Streakfly 2: an innovative short-distance racer
While the designers stayed true to the original Vaporfly silhouette with the Vaporfly Next% 4, the product team took a wholly different approach with the Streakfly 2.
"We wanted to create a shoe in its own category", Jonathon Riley, a Nike product developer, says of the inspiration behind the racer.
Road racing shoes have been designed for years with one distance in mind—the marathon. But what about runners who race the 5K, 10K or even a road mile? They don't need a marathon shoe but still want elite-level horsepower and energy return. That's where the Nike Streakfly 2 comes in.
Built as the road-racing counterpart to the Dragonfly track spike, the Streakfly 2 is one of the only racing shoes not designed for a marathon, filling a gap largely ignored in the super shoe era.
"This shoe is a Renaissance man. It's way different to the old model, and it does it all better".
Cooper Teare, professional middle-distance runner
Every detail of the design was meticulously engineered for shorter, faster races. For starters, it's one of the lightest road-racing shoes Nike has ever produced—despite being made with a full-length carbon plate. The team added the same type of foam used in the Nike Alphafly and Vaporfly shoes—which provides a high-energy return with every stride. The shoe was also configured to maximise speed and propulsion. It naturally puts runners up on their forefoot, creating the feeling of being propelled forwards.
"It functions like stepping on a shovel—the handle flips up and hits you. That's what this shoe does to your foot", says Pat Richie, a Nike global product line manager, of the Streakfly 2's unique fit and feel.
During development, the Streakfly 2 underwent three rounds of testing, with professional middle-distance runner Jemma Reekie wearing the shoe at big races to test its real-world performance. Reflecting on the first time she put on the Streakfly 2, Reekie says she could immediately feel the difference. "I want to run fast in this", she and other professional runners conveyed to Nike's innovation team, and that's exactly what she did.
She competed in the Streakfly 2 at the 2023 Fifth Avenue Mile in New York, one of the world's most prestigious road mile races, where she placed first. At this point it became clear that the shoe could deliver real results for shorter road races and was worthy of a worldwide debut.
Both racers are available at Nike.com and select retailers in the Proto colourway as of 1 March 2025 in some geographies, with additional colourways being released in April 2025.