On November the 6th Wouter Hoogkamer, Shalaya Kip, Jesse, H. Frank, Emily M. Farina, Geng Luo and Rodger Kram published an article establishing the new Nike vapor fly shoes as 4% faster in average for a group of runners (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-017-0811-2).
But what does a 4% improvement in running economy really mean for an average runner?
Well when I compared Trail shoes (heavy and slow) vs the new Nike 4% shoes I see an apparent improvement in my running of 13 watts at the same effort level (Heart rate) in other words 13 seconds per kilometer or about 4.8%. In this n=1 experiment the Nike 4% claim is supported. I will be lacing them up for my local 10k race on Sunday!
