Whether it's 5K or a marathon, the Nike Vaporfly helps you chase new personal bests. The mix of lightweight ZoomX foam and a carbon plate makes it your versatile racing shoe with explosive energy return on race day.
Nike Vaporfly. Your catapult for race day.
Let's be honest. The Nike Vaporfly is nothing for your easy Sunday run. You lace up this shoe when you want to burn your personal best into the tarmac. Nike has tuned everything about this premium racing shoe for performance. The extremely responsive ZoomX foam meets a full-length Flyplate made of carbon fibre. The result is a propulsive ride that literally catapults you forward with every stride.
As a neutral high-performance racing shoe, the Nike Vaporfly is ideal for fast road races from 5 km to half marathon. Nike has optimised it uncompromisingly for very high energy return and minimal weight. The ultimate propulsion comes from the full-length Carbon-Flyplate combined with an ultralight ZoomX midsole. The featherlight upper provides a race-ready, very precise fit.
Table of contents
Is the Nike Vaporfly right for you or not?
- ... you run on tarmac and paved roads.
- ... you have a neutral gait and need no support elements.
- ... you want the highest possible energy return and that famous “catapult effect”.
- ... you are looking for an uncompromising racing shoe for your new personal best.
- ... you want to keep a shoe purely for races and hard speed sessions.
- ... you want plenty of responsive foam underfoot from 5 km to half marathon.
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... you mainly run on trails or in the woods. → Nike trail running shoes
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... you have pronounced overpronation and need plenty of stability. → Nike Structure
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... you prefer a soft, deep sink-in feel like a “sofa for your feet”. → Nike Vomero 18
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... you are looking for a daily trainer for easy long runs and recovery runs. → Nike Pegasus 42
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... you also want a carbon plate for your regular training. → Nike Zoom Fly
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... you prefer a low, flat and highly flexible ride. → Nike Streakfly
What can the Nike Vaporfly do?
The secret of the Nike Vaporfly lies in the harmonious symbiosis of the two high-tech components in the midsole. The featherlight base is formed by ZoomX foam, Nike's lightest and most responsive cushioning material. From heel to toe it delivers the highest possible energy return and keeps your legs noticeably fresher even in the final kilometres of a hard race. The Flyplate made of carbon fibre sits embedded in this foam and, combined with a deliberately low drop, gives you that inimitable, propulsive forward feel.
Nike has stripped the Vaporfly back to the essentials in order to cut the weight radically. The upper is wafer-thin, extremely breathable and wraps your foot like a second skin. Superfluous weight at the heel and tongue has been deliberately left out, because with this shoe every gram counts in the race against the clock.
With the Vaporfly series, Nike is also making a statement about the future of the sport. Vaporfly models carrying the Nike “Sustainable Materials” label consist of at least 20 % recycled material, for example polyester yarns obtained from old plastic bottles, carpets and fishing nets.
Jan Mönch, Running Point buyer
“The Vaporfly is a very light, very direct road running shoe that allows few mistakes and few compromises. If you are well trained and run cleanly, you get an aggressive, fast ride in return and almost certainly a new personal best as well. For me it is the shoe for 5 to 10 kilometres. Half marathon and marathon work too, but that is more something for lightweight specialists.”
Technical facts about the Nike Vaporfly.
The current Nike Vaporfly 4. What has changed compared to the Vaporfly 3.
With the fourth generation, Nike takes an unusual step: instead of stacking up even more foam, the Vaporfly 4 is built lower and lighter. The drop falls from 8 to 6 mm, the foot sits closer to the carbon plate, and the Flyknit upper of its predecessors has given way to a new, wafer-thin Engineered Mesh. On the outsole, too, rubber now sits only where you really need it. All in all, the Vaporfly 4 is around 10 % lighter than the Vaporfly 3.
For you that means: the toe-off feels more direct and more controlled, the shoe sits calmer through corners, but the comfort reserve in the closing kilometres is smaller than with the softer predecessor. Anyone who knew the Vaporfly 3 as a “rocket with padding” gets the sharper, more purist version here.
Our verdict. How does the Nike Vaporfly run?
The moment you slip into it for the first time, you can literally feel that the Nike Vaporfly is built for forward drive. Thanks to the reduced upper and the extremely low weight, this shoe feels almost weightless. Over the first few walking steps it can still feel slightly wobbly because of the narrow base and the low drop. But as soon as you pick up the pace, you notice what a racing machine the Vaporfly is.
In terms of transition it works extremely directly and aggressively. The curved Flyplate pushes you forward with every toe-off, while the ZoomX foam absorbs the impact without any sluggishness. You don't carry this shoe. It carries you.
For all forefoot and midfoot runners who bring clean mechanics, this shoe is an absolute dream. Because of its performance geometry it asks a little more of your calf muscles than a classic trainer, but it rewards you with a stride length and a lightness you won't find in any normal running shoe. Our verdict is based on the current fourth generation.
Nike Vaporfly vs. Nike Alphafly. Where are the differences?
Both are absolute elite running shoes. Both have a carbon plate. And both rely on super-fast ZoomX foam. So why are there two such Nike shoes? The difference lies in the detail and in how you want to put your forward drive onto the road.
In short: the Vaporfly is the nimble lightweight. Because it does entirely without the additional Air pods, it weighs slightly less. That makes it incredibly agile in tight corners and the right companion when you want direct, razor-sharp feedback from the ground.
The Alphafly, on the other hand, is the ultimate steamroller for the straight line. The two Air Zoom elements under the forefoot act like a built-in trampoline. Over 42.195 kilometres it swallows even more impact energy and protects your muscles in the best possible way. In return it feels a little clunkier through corners and puts a few more grams on the scales.
Your questions about the Nike Vaporfly.
We would advise beginners against the Nike Vaporfly. It has a soft midsole and no classic support elements whatsoever. This highly specialised piece of equipment is therefore more suited to runners who already bring stable foot and core muscles and excellent running technique.
Since the Nike Vaporfly is fully tuned for performance and lightweight construction, experience shows that the cushioning and the thin outsole last around 200 to 300 km, depending on body weight and surface, before the extreme catapult effect noticeably fades.
It is possible, but not really sensible. The Vaporfly is designed for a few fast kilometres, and every training run costs you a piece of the catapult effect for race day. So use it specifically for intervals and tempo runs. If you want the carbon feel regularly in training, the Nike Zoom Fly is the right choice: the same combination of ZoomX foam and a full-length carbon plate, but with a more robust midsole and more rubber on the outsole, which also copes with plenty of kilometres. For easy long runs and recovery runs, a classic daily trainer like the Nike Pegasus remains the better basis.
The Vaporfly fits true to size. However, it has a race-oriented, very precise and close-fitting shape through the midfoot so that absolutely nothing slips when you sprint. Runners with slightly wider feet therefore often go half a size up.
The Nike Vaporfly series.
The Nike Vaporfly took the running world by storm in 2017 and founded the era of carbon shoes. Since the legendary Breaking2 project, this series has been continuously developed further to enable new personal bests for runners around the world. The concept has stayed the same throughout: uncompromising lightweight construction that combines the highest energy return with mechanical propulsion. Alongside the Vaporfly, our range also holds further innovative race models from Nike. What exactly the fourth generation does differently, you will find further up in the direct comparison with the Vaporfly 3.
Discover the Nike Vaporfly now and secure the decisive advantage on the start line.