Why is the Nike Vaporfly Next% 2 still here?

My thoughts on why we are seeing Nike elite runners choosing the Vaporfly 2 over the Vaporfly 3.

0:00 Intro
2:28 The Vaporfly 3 is still the best Vaporfly for more runners
3:12 Details matter
4:10 Fit
6:07 Race flat feel
10:17 Smaller sweet spot
12:31 Vaporfly 4 & Streakfly 2
14:52 Outro

Big changes for the Nike Running product line in 2024 https://youtu.be/CwsDdfZ8L0g

Disclosures: No one is paying me to make this video and no one has any editorial control over the contents of this video. Additionally, I have no connection into Nike’s design or marketing process. Everything I cover in this video is my own opinion and experience.

All Images courtesy of Nike and Adidas.

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Intro & outro music from Epidemic Sound:
Mythical Trees – DEX 1200
https://www.epidemicsound.com/artists/dex-1200/

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Nike has a problem actually Nike has a bunch of problems if you don’t know what I’m talking about I made a video recently where I talk about Nike’s running line restructure and some of the problems that they’re running into both corporate and in the running line if you’re interested Link in the description for that but the problem I’m referencing here is with Nike’s Elite Runners now Elite Runners are important because they’re the ones at The Cutting Edge of racing World major Marathon racing in the top line gear the latest and greatest The Vapor Flies and the alpha flies and largely the Nike Elites have pretty much given up on running in the vaporfly 3 and they’re choosing to run in the vaporfly next perent 2 a shoe that is 2 years old now now initially I thought this was because um the vaporfly 3 was new last spring in the spring 2023 Marathon season the vaporfly was just releasing so I figured a lot of the elites didn’t get a chance to to train in The Vapor flly 3 so they stuck with what they know and they raced in the vapor flly 2 totally understandable however by the fall uh 2023 uh World major Marathon season and this recent spring 2024 World major Marathon season we saw even less vaporfly 3s we saw a lot of alphafly 3s which I’ll get to in a moment but we saw very few vaporfly 3es and in fact the Nike Elite Runners who were choosing to run in the vaporfly all were racing in the vaporfly 2 and a couple vaporfly next per 1es the original one a shoe that’s over 3 years old now if we tally up all the N podiums from Tokyo 2023 through London 2024 we get this nine podiums for the alphafly 3 seven podiums for the vaporfly next per 2 remember a 2-year-old Sho and three for the vaporfly 3 and just because I know you’re curious you put the Evo one on here you get a 11 podiums for the evil one so Adidas is doing pretty well and this is the problem I’m referring to the Nike Elites have been telling Nike it seems that they don’t like the vaporfly 3 and frankly now that Nike has a marathon Super Shoe that’s current generation that’s doing very well in the alphafly 3 it also seems like they’ve given up on the vaporfly 3 but what I’ve been wondering is why is that now I’ve been a big fan of the vaporfly 3 I love this shoe I think this is the best vaporfly for me yet and I’ve run in all of them I bought three pairs of these last year I raced in them I trained in them this was my shoe of the year for 2023 I stand by the fact that I think this is a better shoe a better vaporfly for more Runners an average Runner is going to do much better in the vaporfly 3 than any of the previous vaporflies but the things that make this a good shoe for average runners like me or you is what makes it not so good for Elites now what is that we’ve heard that this is less aggressive it’s less propulsive but what does that really mean if we look at both of these shoes The Vapor flly 3 and the vapor flly 2 we realize that not a lot has changed between these two shoes they’re still both full zoomx midsoles they both still have a carbon fiber plate in fact they’re the same Nike fly plate between the two shoes meaning the same geometry the same propulsive spoon effect in the forefoot they’re both low plate configuration shoes they both have lightweight uppers they’re both very lightweight overall and overall not a lot has changed here but there are some subtle detail differences between these two shoes and that’s what’s making a big big difference for the Nike Elites The more I’ve thought about this and I’ve actually spent time running in the vaporfly 3 and the vaporfly 2 recently to really test this I’ve really come down to three primary differences that make the vaporfly 3 feel less aggressive over the vaporfly 2 or the original vaporfly next per one the first area is the fit this upper now I love the upper of this shoe it’s one of the things I love about the vaporfly 3 because it fits my weird foot which is neither wide nor narrow but I do have a very high arch and a very high volume foot so the extra room in the midfoot the extra room in the toebox really fit me well this upper fits my foot perfectly I’ve had zero problems with this I’ve had zero toe trauma I’ve trained in this I’ve raced in this I’ve had absolutely no problems with this upper which is something I can’t say about the upper of other Vapor Flies specifically the vaporfly 2 this upper was very much a toe killer for me um but it is a more aggressive uh tighter fitting race fit upper it’s not as aggressive as this The Vapor weave in the original vaporfly this is a very very tight and secure race fit but it’s close the vapor Fly 2 has the best of the fit of this shoe but in a more breathable upper textile that I think fits more Racers feet it gives you a much tighter more secure fit now this shoe is very uh finicky to get on your foot as all vaporflies are but getting this upper in the right place getting the tongue in the right place does take some effort but once you do racing this shoe I never really had massive problems other than some toe issues because there’s just not a lot of volume in the toe box of this shoe but overall I think that’s why the elites are preferring the shoe because it gives you the breathability that’s built in the vaporfly 3 but it’s still giving you the race fit of the vaporfly one in a shoe that just fits like a race shoe should it almost fits like like a track spike in many ways not quite as tight but it is a true race fit and this distinguishes it from the vaporfly 3 even though the dimensions of the vaporfly 2 are the same as the vaporfly 3 I think the next thing about this shoe that really is why Elites are preferring it is that this shoe feels like a race flat this shoe feels very minimal compared to all of the current uh Super Shoes that we have on the market right now in fact this shoe feels feel pretty minimal compared to this shoe and this shoe only has 2 more mm of foam really only in the 4 foot but this shoe runs very much like a very minimal racing flat which is kind of remarkable because it’s not there is a lot of foam in this shoe secondly about the feel of this shoe the fact this feels like a racing flat I think this outsole this big thick chunk of rubber that’s in the foref foot of the shoe actually makes this shoe run very differently this big piece of rubber that’s in the for foot of this shoe gives a platform to land on but more importantly push off it almost feels like it contains the zoomx that’s above it and doesn’t let the zoomx kind of spill out too much because zox is a very compressive foam but this big thick piece of rubber in here really gives you a platform to push into the ground and push off of the ground so I also think that’s why the elites are preferring this shoe is just that that toe off feel of the shoe cuz it does feel much more propulsive because it has this bigger thicker platform underf foot touching the ground but this big thick piece of rubber in the foref foot of the vaporfly 2 is also what makes this shoe feel very Slappy or harsh for average Runners which is why I think Nike ultimately switched the 4 foot Rubber and the vapor fly 3 to this much thinner waffled piece of rubber that has cutout between the waffles that gives you a much softer more compliant feel To The Ground by also putting the thinner piece of rubber on here they managed to put two more mil of uh zoomx foam in the forefoot of the shoe which again makes this shoe feel softer so overall this shoe has a much softer forefoot which still rolls you forward because of the plate but it does feel squishy at times now I’ve done 200s and 400s in this shoe and my 200 or 400 pace is on the slower end of an elite marathon pace and this shoe feels very squishy very soft to me I don’t really like doing 200s or 400s in this shoe you can do them but it’s not my first choice but doing 200s or 400s in this shoe this shoe feels powerful it feels strong if you’re up on your toes and you have really good form this shoe really rewards putting all that power into the ground and rolling and pushing off on this big beautiful piece of rubber I think Elites prefer that and staying on the midsole differences and the way this shoe feels it runs like a flat I think we also have to credit the zoom X foam that’s in the shoe now remember this shoe is over 2 years old the zoomx in this shoe is from 2019 to about 2021 this is the older more styrofoam feel of zoomx if you run in zoomx a long time you know that recently in the past two to three years zoomx has become much more rubberized the zoomx that’s in the vaporfly 3 is a much more rubbery type feel even when you wear into this foam there’s much more um rubber feel to it it doesn’t look like a styrofoam once you wear the coating off of the foam but when you wear the coating off of the foam in this you can look into this foam and you see that the cell structure is very styrofoam you can even holding the shoe and pressing the foam I can hear differences in this foam I just think the older zoomx foam is probably less squishy I’m not going to say it’s firmer because it’s still zoomx it’s still a foam you sink into but I think the way the older zoomx phone works with the plate and how it isn’t so rubbery in its feel gives this shoe again a much more propulsive positive ride that’s I think one of the biggest components why people say this is a more aggressive ride and that brings me to the last point of why I think Elites prefer this shoe and it’s that this shoe has a smaller sweet spot now as an average Runner if you’ve ever raced in this shoe especially a half or full marathon and and your form hasn’t been optimal or it’s Fallen apart in the later stages of the race you know this shoe can be very very harsh to run in this shoe likes you to be up on your toe to have very good perfect strong form once you kind of fall off start Landing more mid 40 Ren heel in this shoe forget it this shoe is going to punish you each step but for an elite who is up on their toes or at least has really good form and strength they’re very well trained much better than us as average Runners that smaller Sweet Spot rewards them much better but I also think that’s why Nike really extended The Sweet Spot of the vaporfly 3 to again be much broader if you braced in this shoe and you’ve Fallen apart or your form hasn’t been optimal this shoe will kind of work for you it’s not going to punish you every step get out of line to a certain point it will start to punish you but that point is much much further down the line than any you would ever feel in this shoe so this shoe has a much bigger Sweet Spot which again I think benefits more average Runners but again Elites just don’t like it because it’s too accommodating it’s not aggressive enough so I think those three things together are what are making people say this is a more aggressive shoe and I would agree having run in this recently doing some 1K repeats and some 400s I definitely noticed it and I hadn’t run in this shoe for over a year and you know comparing it to a workout in this shoe my times are similar this is a little faster but this shoe felt faster this shoe felt like the racing flat I remember the vaporfly feeling like I’m going to admit I kind of missed that though I do think this is the better shoe for me because there’s just more foam in it it’s more accommodating for not optimal form but this definitely does feel like the faster shoe and again I do think that’s why elit are picking this over the Vapor flly 3 now it seems like Nike has completely moved on from The Vapor flly 3 they’re not forcing their Pros in a leits to racing it and frankly it doesn’t look like they’re really doing anything with the vaporfly 3 now we have seen some very low res and blurry images of a vaporfly 4 prototype leaked out there and what we can make out about the vaporfly 4 is that it is a very very different shoe completely different geometry completely different foam up design language wise it doesn’t look like it has anything to do with the alphafly 3 or the vaporfly 3 it seems like it’s a completely new Direction so obviously Nike is investing in whatever comes next for the vaporfly 4 we should see the vaporfly 4 next year because it’s an alternating year between the alphafly and the vaporfly this year was alphafly next year should be vaporfly now another shoe that’s coming up in conversation about vaporfly 4 is the recently revealed Street flly 2 now if you want to see photos of these shoes the vaporfly 4 leaks and the street Flight 2 go check out this Instagram account the secret shoe he posts all of this stuff he can post stuff on Instagram which I’m not going to put in a video go follow him you’ll see all of this stuff but what we have seen in the streak Fly 2 is a much more aggressive streak fly a streak fly that looks like a a hybrid of the alphafly 3 and the vaporfly 3 from a design language in the silhouette of the midsole but now with a carbon fiber plate much more stack height stack height that looks like it’s only five or six Ms less than the Vapor 3 with a very aggressive topring making the street Fly 2 a much more aggressive vaporfly 3 in many ways now I’m not saying we’re going to see streak fly 2os on the feet of elite Runners at World major marathons but I think some people will try maybe not at the elite level but at sort of the next tier down I think you will see people racing marathons and half marathons in this street flight 2o because it looks like a shoe that’s designed to do that not just go after five and 10ks so it will be interesting where Nike is actually going with that shoe and what that shoe feels like on foot but it’s also I think interesting to me that Nike is holding on to some aspects of the vaporfly 3 but making it more aggressive thank you for making it to the end of the video If you find this content useful consider subscribing you’ll see more content from me pop up in your 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