Nike Is Betting Everything on the Alphafly 4

The Nike Alphafly 4 has landed, the first update to the Alphafly franchise in two years and eight months. We have had our hands on this shoe since late November, and today we can finally talk about it.

Michael Doyle and Alex Cyr break down everything we know about Nike's new super shoe: the full spec sheet, every change from the Alphafly 3, the prototypes we tracked on elite feet over the past year, and whether Nike has done enough to stay competitive at the sharp end of the super shoe market.

THE SPECS

The Alphafly 4 retails for $275, which is $10 below the Alphafly 3's launch price. Stack height is 39mm in the heel and 31mm in the forefoot, an 8mm drop, and it weighs 7.33 ounces in a men's size 10. Nike rates it for roughly 300 miles.

The carbon plate is wider. The Zoom Air units are 30 percent lighter and made with radio frequency and vibration rather than heat molding. The foam has a new name, Zoom XLT, which Nike says is 17 percent lighter with 8 percent better energy return, contributing to a claimed 10 percent gain in energy return for the shoe overall. And after years of complaints, Nike says this is the quietest Alphafly yet.

THE QUESTION

Nike invented the super shoe and no longer dominates it. The Adidas Adizero Pro Evo 3, worn to the first two sub two hour marathons in London, weighs 4.3 ounces. Most of the current field sits under seven ounces. So we spend a good portion of this conversation on whether the Alphafly 4 can be taken seriously at the front of a race, or whether Nike has deliberately built it for everyone else and is saving its real answer for a shoe reported to be called the Apex.

We also power rank the super shoe market as it stands, run the cost per mile math against the Pro Evo 3, go through every prototype sighting from Conner Mantz in Chicago to Jacob Kiplimo in London, and close with the question neither of us can shake.

CHAPTERS

00:00 It's Alphafly 4 Day
02:03 First Impressions Holding the Shoe
05:45 What Nike Changed Underfoot
07:55 The Spec Sheet: $275 and 39mm
10:10 Rated for 300 Miles
11:41 Zoom XLT and the Pebax Reveal
12:31 The Weight Problem
14:18 How It Stacks Up Against Its Rivals
15:37 Why the Alphafly 3 Was a Gold Mine
18:30 They Finally Fixed the Squeak
20:05 Where We Spotted the Prototypes
22:00 Every Podium It Has Already Won
23:04 The Sifan Hassan Mystery
23:57 The Zero Drop Prototype
25:51 Power Ranking the Elite Super Shoes
29:29 Where the Alphafly 4 Slots In
32:04 92 Cents a Mile vs $6 a Mile
34:30 Hot Take: Best Seller in Six Months
36:22 The Apex, Nike's Real Answer
41:41 Over/Unders and Bold Predictions
46:57 Is Nike Done?
51:28 Would We Race In It?
55:40 Coming Next: Brett Schoolmeester

WHAT'S NEXT

Our full Alphafly 4 review is coming once our test pairs arrive, along with head to head comparisons against the rest of the super shoe field. Next week we sit down with Brett Schoolmeester, Nike's vice president of innovation and one of the people behind the super shoe since the beginning.

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