Nike's Super Shoe Architect on the Alphafly 4, Zero-Drop Prototypes & What's Next

Nike's Bret Schoolmeester has worked on super shoes since the very first prototype. Michael Doyle and Alex Cyr sit down with him just after the launch of the Nike Alphafly 4 to talk about the past, present and future of the carbon-plated racing shoe.

Bret goes back to 2015, when Nike set out to help a human break two hours in the marathon, and explains how a scoop-shaped carbon plate and an experimental PEBA foam got cobbled into a Streak 6 upper and became the shoe that changed the sport. He then gets into the details of the Alphafly 4: the new ZoomX LT foam, why Nike is sticking with Zoom Air pods and a full carbon plate, why the launch was moved up for Andreas Almgren and the World Road Running Championships, and why he calls it the biggest leap since the original Alphafly.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
02:27 The origin of the super shoe: Breaking2 and the first prototype
09:00 ZoomX LT, PEBA foam and carbon plates explained
13:43 Alphafly 4 prototypes and Conner Mantz's American record
19:33 How Nike reacted to London's sub-2 marathon
22:09 The super shoe of the future and a zero-drop tease
29:50 Alphafly 4 vs. Alphafly 3
33:12 Is the daily trainer dead?
41:36 Jacob Kiplimo's training in Kenya before Chicago
43:29 The future of the Vaporfly and sub-2 predictions

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