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The Nike Alphafly was born out of the ambitious Breaking2 project, an initiative launched by Nike in 2017 to break the two-hour marathon barrier. This audacious goal required a shoe that could provide unprecedented energy return and efficiency. Nike added their signature Air technology coupled with a carbon-fiber plate making the fastest shoe in history.
The shoe's development was driven by insights gained from Nike's longstanding relationship with elite athletes, particularly Eliud Kipchoge. The Kenyan marathoner played a crucial role in testing and refining the shoe, providing valuable feedback that shaped its design. Kipchoge famously wore a prototype of the Alphafly when he became the first person to run a marathon in under two hours, completing the distance in 1:59:40 during a specially organized event in Vienna in 2019.
While this achievement wasn't recognized as an official world record due to the controlled nature of the event, it demonstrated the shoe's potential. The following year, Kipchoge's compatriot Brigid Kosgei shattered the women's marathon world record in Chicago, running 2:14:04 while wearing Alphafly prototypes. These high-profile successes sparked both excitement and controversy in the running world, with some praising the technological advancement and others questioning whether the shoes provided an unfair advantage.
The Alphafly's impact extended beyond just marathons. Athletes wearing variations of the shoe set new records across multiple distances. For instance, Joshua Cheptegei broke both the 5,000m and 10,000m world records in 2020 wearing Nike shoes featuring similar technology.
In response to the shoe's dominance, World Athletics, the governing body for track and field, introduced new regulations in 2020 limiting sole thickness and the use of multiple plates. The commercial version of the Alphafly was designed to comply with these rules while still delivering remarkable performance benefits to runners of all levels.
The combination of ZoomX foam, Zoom Air units, and the carbon fiber plate in the Alphafly represents a culmination of Nike's decades-long research into cushioning and propulsion technologies. It builds upon innovations like Zoom Air, first introduced in the 1990s, and the carbon plate, which Nike began experimenting with in the early 2000s. This history of innovation, coupled with the shoe's role in breaking significant barriers in distance running, has cemented the Alphafly's place as a landmark design in the evolution of running footwear.
