First Look: Nike Vaporfly 4, Released March 2025

Here are the first official photos and details of the Nike Vaporfly 4, which is due to be released 1 March 2025. 

Featuring Nike’s proprietary ZoomX foam and a new shape of carbon fibre Flyplate, this is the lightest ever Vaporfly, and a shoe Nike say is “the most versatile Nike racing model on the market,” great for everything from a 5k to a marathon.

The Vaporfly 4 keeps the comfort and stability of the Vaporfly 3, and adds a new Flyplate geometry to push runners forward, a combination which Nike explains as “a finely tuned balance of support and propulsion that serves runners of all abilities and intensities.”

The Nike Vaporfly 4 is 10% lighter than the Vaporfly 3, with that weight loss coming from less foam in the midsole and a new lighter upper with improved comfort and fit.

The stack height also changes, and the Nike Vaporfly 4 is 35mm in the heel and 29mm in the forefoot, with a 6mm drop. That’s 4mm less than the Vaporfly 3, and 5mm inside the World Athletics limit of 40mm. Is this a weight-saving decision, or have Nike’s researchers found a new sweet-spot of stack, speed, comfort and support?

So the shoe is lighter than the previous version and claims to be more responsive and more comfortable, and gives you all the speed and support you need over races from 5k to the marathon. 

Stay tuned for a full review when we get to run in the Nike Vaporfly 4!

The Nike Vaporfly 4 launches from 1 March 2025. It will be available in the classic white and orange prototype colourway and in ‘Bright Crimson and Lime Blast.’ The price is expected to be $260.

VAPORFLY: A FRANCHISE FAVOURITE

The Nike Vaporfly franchise launched in 2017 for the Breaking2 project which saw Eliud Kipchoge attempt to run the first sub-two hour marathon in the Vaporfly 4%. The Vaporfly Next% followed, then the Next% 2. Nike Vaporfly 3 was released in March 2023 and a lot of amateur runners liked the shoe, though we didn’t see many elites wearing the Vaporfly 3 in races (no one ran to a podium position in any Marathon Major or Olympic Marathon in 2024, but there were two winners and one third place wearing Vaporfly Next% 2). 

Now comes Nike Vaporfly 4. Lighter and sleeker, but will it be faster? And will we see elites wearing it at the spring marathons?

NIKE STREAKFLY 2 COMING IN MARCH 2025

Alongside the Vaporfly 4, the new Nike Streakfly 2 is also launching in March 2025. 

The Streakfly 2 is designed for short races, track workouts, intervals and threshold runs, using the same DNA from the Vaporfly franchise, and extending it through the wider family. The heart of that is using the same ZoomX foam and a Flyplate.

As Nike say, the Streakfly 2 is “purpose-built to deliver raw speed and ultra-responsive cushioning for shorter distances, touting an aggressive new shape, an incredibly lightweight construction and a full-length Flyplate.”

The carbon fibre Flyplate is a big new addition to the shoe which is built on a track spike last (a mold used to construct shoes), giving is an aggressive shape built for propulsion. It’s just 126g (40g lighter than the original Streakfly) and has a 4mm drop, with 27mm in the heel and 23mm in the forefoot. It’s expected to cost $180 on release.

Being both responsive and supportive, it’s a shoe you can warm up in and then go straight into a session or a race, where it can work just as well for fast 200s or for a 10k race. 

As of spring 2025, the Nike Racing lineup includes the Streakfly 2, Vaporfly 4, Alphafly 3, plus the Zoom Fly 6, a carbon plate super trainer. 

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Are you a Nike Vaporfly fan? Will you be buying the Vaporfly 4? 

All images from Nike