My NIKE Rotation (RUNNING SHOES)

Essentially 5-6 Running Shoe Reviews rolled into one. Spoiler alert: the shoes under the microscope are the Nike Rival Fly 4, the Nike Zoom Fly 6, the Nike Pegasus Plus, the Nike Vaporfly 3, the Nike Streakfly 2. I make mention of the Pegasus and the Vomero but I don’t have the most up-to-date models. Also, I ran in the Peg Premium and I would rather not weigh in on that shoe since I am not running it.

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Oh snap. Guess who’s back sitting into these shots. It’s your boy Midlife Runner. Did you miss me? Don’t answer that. Okay. Today we are talking about my Nike running shoe rotation. This is essentially like six running shoe reviews rolled into one cuz I don’t have time. Life is life and midlife be midifying. You don’t give a about me. So let’s talk about the shoes. Oh, actually really quick caveat for all of these shoes. This I’m going just below the surface. If you want the indepth Nike running shoe reviews, go check out my man Chris Sagasu, third cousin to Bruce Willis. great guy. Wow. I guess we’re cussing in this one, huh? Oh, and for the format of this video, I’m going to talk about each shoe and then like two or three things about each shoe that you should know before you buy them. Now, for the first shoe, we’ve got the Nike Zoom Fly 6. What do you get when you cross this shoe with the New Balance Rebel V3? Don’t click off, guys. I’m about to tell you the shoe. Don’t click off when I tell you. It’s the Nike Rival Fly 4. Now, I know what you’re thinking. I Andrew, I don’t give a about the Nike Rival Fly 4. It’s like $65 online right now, but you should. This is a sneaky little sneaker. It’s a little engine that could. On Straa, I called it my Rebel Killer. I compare it to the New Balance Rebel V3, but it is nothing like the shoe as far as the feeling underfoot and the ride of the shoe, but it’s in the same genre. Slightly more than a flat. It’s like a flat trainer. It’s a shoe that you can really run in every day. It’s nimble. It’s quick. It’s a small shoe for a short king like myself. Now, the Rival Fly 4 is also like, but not like the Zoom Fly 6. I’ve put these two shoes up here so you could see the outsole pattern and how similar they are. They have two different foams. The Zoom Fly 6 has a plate. We got an Air Zoom unit in the Rival Fly 4. And there’s more stack to the Zoom Fly 6. They have different midsles as well, different rubber ZoomX and some other foam and Kushlon 3.0. Either way, it still has similar feel underfoot because it’s the same shape. Same thing with the Alphal Fly 3 for my midfoot mechanics. Okay, three things you need to know about the Nike Rival Fly 4. Number one, there’s not a lot to the shoe. 22 mm of foam under the forefoot. That air zoom unit, you can feel I can feel it under the forefoot at easier paces. as I pick up the pace and the ground contact time goes down, it disappears. No issue at its intended use. Number two, how I will use the shoe. I use the shoe for steey runs, steady, easy, steey. I also use it for hill repeats. I would also use it for like fart licky one on, one off, one minute on, one minute off type of runs. Number three, I ran in the rain. Look at this outsole. There’s a lot there, right? So, I think the shoe will be durable, but it is a slippery Okay, freedom of speech. All right, for the second shoe in my Nike shoe rotation, while we’re on it, let’s just talk about the Nike Zoom Fly 6. I want to say five things about this shoe. Number one, it’s my favorite Nike trainer. I got about 70 mi in it. I use it mostly for threshold running. Number two, this also similar to the Rival Fly 4 has an 8 millimeter drop and I think that contributes to it having the same kind of feel as the Rival Fly 4. Okay, the most important thing, this is like the most important thing. Actually, the third thing about this shoe is that it’s really the only truly bouncy shoe that Nike makes as far as their trainers go. And don’t at me in the comments, ho, okay? Because yes, all shoes are somewhat bouncy, but this is a certified cheater. What does it give? It gives assistance. It gives running economy. I understand why so many runners use it daily and swear by this shoe. Number four, the bounce comes mostly from the heel, which means it’s a heel striker friendly shoe. But number five, also it’s snappy and responsive in the forefoot. The combination of those two things, I think really only Nike has ever nailed down. Not to tangent, he said before tangenting. Propulsion of a shoe comes from one of three ways. Bounce, energy return, bouncing me along. Number two is the snap, the responsiveness. This comes from a carbon plate, carbon rod, some sort of stiffening agent. And number three is the geometry of the shoe. Now, the lightness of the shoe, the weight does contribute to running faster for sure. Absolutely. But it doesn’t give this sensation of cheating and pushing me forward. Not on this list that I just told you is a word. Soft. Soft isn’t on there. Also trending in 2025. Soft shoes, soft foams. Mazuno’s got softer. Hok’s got softer. Adidas now has a softer light strike. Now, here comes my point. Who has the softest foam in the game and has always had the softest foam is Nike with ZoomX. But how they use it is different and it’s brilliant. Okay, I take a shoe like the Vaporfly Nex 2. If I land, the foam collapses and me, this is just my experience. This is an experiential channel, guys. I’m not saying it’s the same for you before you come at me in the comments, okay? It’s just my experience. The foam collapses, transitions me to the stiffening agent. Boom. I’m flying. And that’s why they’re the goats. Okay, that’s why they’re goated. End of tangent. The Zoom Fly 6. In conclusion, I’m going to say underfoot, not a race day sensation. However, in my opinion, this is a perfect training shoe for threshold runs. For shoe number three, we’re going to be talking about the Peg Plus. Listen, before you click away, let me tell you, it’s a sleeper shoe. Hear me out. I love this shoe. 10 mm drop. Don’t click off. Don’t fast forward. Listen to me. I have so much to say about this shoe. First, let me tell you why it’s a sleeper. Because the year of our Lord, 2025, that’s the year we’re in right now. And it’s the year of stack. Or maybe last year was, but we’re still we love the stack. We back the stack. Sticker on the back of my cart. We back the stack. Everything’s like Jerry Stack House. Please stop. One more. Absolutely not. Jean Stackman. So if you run in the Puma Mag, first run in the Puma MagX, the Glycerin Max, the Skyward X, even the Evo SL with the Continental Slope right under foot. The first run in any of those shoes is memorable. It’s very exciting. Instant glee. Word of the video. Glee. Then you put on the Pegasus Plus and you go for a run and you feel disappointment. you if that’s all you know is the is the MagMax category of shoe but not me. So here are three things that I want you to know about the Peg Plus. Okay, the first thing that you guys need to know about the Peg Plus, it’s got a 10 mm drop. That’s a big turnoff for people and I don’t know, for me not so much. Now some people say, “Yeah, but it doesn’t really feel like a 10 mm drop.” Apologize. And that that might be true, but it definitely does feel like a big drop. Like maybe 8 mm. Okay. Me personally, I don’t have an issue with it. When I started running in 2020, my favorite daily trainer was the Nova Blast One. I had two pairs. Put 450 mi in the first one and maybe 200 in this one. And this one also on paper has a 10 mm drop. And what this shoe felt like when I ran in it was like someone was pushing me for. I felt like Michael Jackson, but like running, just pushing. Okay, I’m just going to change the subject. The second thing I want to say about the Peg Plus is that Nike catches a lot of for making very narrow shoes, or at least they used to. And that’s not the case with the Peg Plus. It’s It’s a little bit wider here, especially under the forefoot. And it reminds me of a couple shoes that I tried this year. I started running in some other brands that I hadn’t tried before, a couple Chinese companies, and these are speed trainers. And one thing that I noticed about them was they seem to have extra foam extended out underneath the fat pad of my big toe. I know it’s probably just a sensation, but when I looked down, I could see it felt like the foam was jettting out right here. And so when I ran in it, I felt more support landing mid to forefoot. And that’s a similar sensation and stability that I’m getting from the Peg Plus that I don’t really remember being in the Peg Turbo 2. It has been a while since I’ve run in it. Okay, the third thing you need to know about this shoe, the Peg Plus, is that Nike nailed it. They nailed this thing. Okay, the Peg Turbo 2 was quietly great. Maybe not on the marketing front, okay? I’m just mean underfoot because this was before I was on YouTube. I didn’t know YouTube existed. I didn’t watch YouTube. I was just getting into running. I didn’t know that the Peg Turbo 2 had a Colt following. I just knew that it was on sale. It was 180. I saw it on sale for like 134. And it was great underfoot. It was subtle butter. And that’s what the Peg Plus is. It’s subtle butter. That’s another reason why I think it’s a sleeper, cuz it’s reminiscent of the Peg Turbo 2. This is old school subtle butter, guys. All right. And then the last thing I want to tell you about the Peg Plus is how I’m using it. I’m using it similarly to the Nova Blast 1. I’m using it as a daily trainer, but really for steey runs, steady easy runs when I’m feeling frisky pace-wise, maybe a minute off marathon pace when I’m feeling good. Now, the shoe that I used before this one for that was the Evo SL. And for like a 30-se secondond comparison on that, the Evo SL has the Light Strike Pro foam continental slope underfoot. So, it’s got the geometry and the combination of those two things really pushes me forward. Like, I have a hard time running easier on it. I have to really focus on my form not to go too fast. The shoe is in control of me. Pet plus very peppy shoe, but I’m still in control of the shoe and when I want, I can pick it up or I can cruise. And that’s the difference, guys. For the fourth shoe in my Nike running shoe rotation, we’ve got the Nike Streetfly version. Number two, I’ve got also got a squeaky chair because Steve Magnus has a squeaky chair and I want to have something in common with him. And that’s about maybe all we have in common. Anyway, four things. Okay, number one, this is a certified super shoe. It is so good. It’s one of the best three shoes of the year. I’m going to make a video much later just throwing up a bunch of compliments on the shoot. Number two, basically it’s like a track spike without the spikes for road racing. Number three, this shoe is so light. When I put it on my feet, I feel like I just ate a salad. Number four, how I use it. I use it at the track for intervals naturally. But I will say that I’m probably going to switch to a different shoe and save this one just for race day because that’s how special it is and also because I got a shoe problem. Got a lot of shoes. So, okay, for shoe number five, I’ve got my my daily trainer, which I don’t have a daily. I have the Vimeo 16. Couple years out of date. You guys don’t want to hear about the Vimeo 16. Very different than the Vimeo 18. Last peg I ran in was a peg 37, but usually you have the Pegasus or the Vimeo. I’m more of a Vimeo girly than a Pegirly, but that’s missing from this rotation. All right. And for the final shoe in the Nike running shoe rotation, it’s going to be the race day shoe. And to be transparent, I have run in every Nike race day shoe except for the Vaporfly 4. So, I’ve been using the Vaporfly 3 for long runs and long runs with marathon pace in it as the I’m trying not to make a whole segment. I got kids to raise. Me and the middle child got to go watch Squid Game season 3 here real quick. So, I don’t try not to tangent too much, but my favorite alltime shoes from Ray shoes from Nike are the the ones and the twos, the the older versions. They seem just a little bit more aggressive. I know the Vaporfly 4 got lighter. And so, you know, we’ll see because I have to test it. But if I had to pick for a half marathon, I would still go with the Vaporfly 2% um or the Vaporfly 2. And then I have here the Alphal 2, the Alphal 1. I’ve run in the three. I would go with the one still over the three. Three is a very fast shoe. I feel like that one’s for like 5K 10K and it was so fast and I ended up selling it cuz I already got plenty of 5K 10K type of shoes and I was looking for more of a marathon shoe and I feel like the the goated is this. Anyway, I have Adidas, I have Hoka, I have Mizuno, I have a whole rotation that I can do from any of those. So, put in the comments if you want to see any of those. What? I’m just waiting for what? The obvious joke. [Music] [Music]