It’s in our nature to innovate. When Bill Bowerman began building hand crafted shoes for his runners at the University of Oregon, the iconic track and field coach and Nike co-founder was looking to give his athletes every advantage possible. That motivation to endlessly find ways to improve performance is still in our DNA and continues to inspire our effort to serve athletes—and we’re never done. Even our most innovative products are constantly reinvented as we look to support the whole athlete and listen to their needs. From the Waffle to Air to FlyWire, the athlete remains at the core of our push to innovate and we look toward the future with an eye on the past as we continue to fuel possibility through sport.
When the Waffle Trainer hit the track in the late 1970’s, changing the running landscape, and Air dominating the tracks, courts and fields in the 90s, some would be content to call that good enough. But as sport and technology evolve, so do the ways we can Serve the Athlete*. As we respond with new technologies like sustainability-driven Flyknit, weight reducing Flywire or new cushioning platforms like React, we’re also advancing our own innovations by taking foundational technologies like Air to new heights with flexible and performance-driven VaporMax, or to new lows with the numerous variations of Zoom to support speed-focused athletes with ground hugging cushioning. Whether used individually or in sport specific combinations, our drive to get better, faster and stronger will always inspire and move us forward.
What seemed to be impossible became a reality when Eliud Kipchoge broke the two-hour marathon barrier on October 12th 2019 with an astonishing time of 1:59:40. His performance was the culmination of a lifetime spent continuously evolving as he transitioned from five-time 5000 meter World Champion on the track to the road where he won 6 major marathons, including four London Marathon wins and an Olympic gold in Rio. While his first attempt in 2017 fell short by 26 seconds, his effort in partnership with Nike to achieve a sub-two-hour goal provided the learnings that would fuel the record setting 2019 attempt for both the athlete and the product. The Nike Sport Research Lab worked with Eliud and other testers to take the Nike ZoomX Vaporfly 4% worn in the first attempt and use their collective learnings that would eventually create the Nike ZoomX Vaporfly Next% which offered more efficient performance, an even better energy return and ultimately helped Kipchoge break the two-hour barrier.
