Why Beads?

We spent years obsessing the beads—finding the right size, shape and feel to deliver a soft, comfortable ride. Here’s how it works: Every time you take a step—or stride—10,000+ beads shape around your foot to provide personalized cushioning and support, before responsively bouncing back to propel you forward.

That soft ride doesn’t just go easy on your feet—it helps your whole body feel good. The Nike Joyride cushioning system offers 14% better impact absorption when compared to some of our most trusted running shoes (tested with Nike Air Zoom Pegasus 36 and Nike Epic React FK2).

If you’re looking for a totally unique, completely personalized cushioning feel, this is the shoe for you. With four pods of tiny, squishy beads placed strategically throughout the midsole, the Nike Joyride Flyknit offers incredible comfort from heel to toe on your shakeout runs.

This shoe feels like a more traditional running shoe, with two pods of tiny foam beads in the heel and midfoot for personalized cushioning where you need it most. The one-two punch of beads in the most common areas of greatest impact and a responsive foam midsole moves you easily from one stride to the next.

Nike Joyride is designed to work for every runner, at every stage of their journey. It helps keep your legs and feet feeling fresh, so you’ll want to go again—whether yesterday was the longest run of your life or your first run ever.

Will Moroski, Senior Product Line Manager for Nike Running takes us behind the design of Nike Joyride, from inspiration to realization.

It started with a common request from runners: find a way to make running feel easy. That’s a huge problem to solve, and it required a wildly creative, thoroughly innovative solution. It took years, but Will Moroski and his team had a lot of fun figuring it out.

Will Moroski
Senior Product Line Manager for Nike Running