Nike Vaporfly 4: First Look & Thoughts

Vapor Light

Lighter and faster is the name of the game when it comes to racing shoes in 2025. Brands are leveraging lighter materials and years of innovation to drop the weights on marathon shoes, so it only makes sense that the first brand to set the bar would come out of the gates swinging. Today, Nike officially announced the arrival of the Nike ZoomX Vaporfly Next% 4, the lightest version yet of the shoe that started it all.

The shoe will release on March 1 in conjunction with the Streakfly 2, its shorter-distance and lower stacked race day shoe.

What’s New in the Nike Vaporfly 4

At first glance, not much has changed. The key components of the Vaporfly remain intact– ZoomX midsole, carbon Flyplate, breathable upper in a lightweight package. However, in race day shoes, incremental changes can produce significant performance results, and there are plenty of those within the design. 

Starting with the overall design, the Vaporfly 4 piggybacks on the recent Alphafly and Zoom Fly silhouettes, employing the slicked back (not pushed back) spoiler-like midsole sculpting from heel to forefoot. As with the Vaporfly 3, you can see a bit of the Flyplate peeking through, and the overall angle of the plate is obvious if you follow the dividing line from the separate layers of ZoomX. However, the Vaporfly 3 had more foam on both the medial and lateral sides of the midsole (see below), which has been trimmed down in this version. 

The upper is a deviation from recent Nike performance models, which had been carrying versions of Atomknit or Flyknit, though the Zoom Fly 6 had moved to a woven mesh upper. The upper on the Vaporfly 4 appears to be a more traditional lightweight mesh. It also appears that the lacing is no longer offset, unlike past versions of the shoe.

Nike’s goal with the Vaporfly 4 is to strike a balance between softness and stability, with increased performance. The midsole has been trimmed up a bit while the Flyplate has a more aggressive curvature, a design intended to “unlock leverage from the foot and ankle.” Interestingly, the stack height has been cut down by 4 mm, now at 35 mm in the heel and 29 mm in the forefoot (6 mm drop). This is a significant design change, as the Vaporfly was really the first shoe to set the worldwide standard of 40 mm stack height for race regulations, as determined by World Athletics. Almost every race day shoe designed for the marathon goes up to that line, this is one of the first times we’ve seen a shoe take a step back.

Of course, trimming the stack height and sculpting of the midsole will inevitably add to weight savings, which means the Vaporfly 4 is the lightest version of the shoe yet, coming in at only 5.9 oz. (169 g) for a US M8.5. This means that the shoe is 10% (i.e. 20 grams) lighter than the first version, which was already one of the lightest race day shoes on the market. 

Finally, the outsole features a generous layer of rubber with full coverage in the forefoot, with a clear callback to the outsole design of the Vaporfly 1 and Vaporfly 2. 

The price on the shoe is $260, which is on par with most marathon shoes these days. Crazy to think that it’s only $10 more than the original Vaporfly that came out eight years ago. Say what you will about shoe prices, but it’s far less than the inflation levels since that time.

Our Thoughts on the Nike Vaporfly 4

As one of the very few outlets that have reviewed every version of the Vaporfly from 2017 until now, we’re heavily invested in each subsequent version of the shoe. Since its inception, the Vaporfly has been the baseline standard for marathon racing. Yes, there have been other shoes with more pods and plates and rockers and tech, but when it comes to pure simplicity in a carbon-plated race day shoe, it’s hard to beat the Vaporfly.

We absolutely loved the last version of the shoe. It remains one of my all-time favorite racers, both for the fit of the upper and the performance underfoot. It struck the perfect balance between comfort and performance, offering a pure race day feel with a touch of magic thanks to the ZoomX and carbon Flyplate combination.

We’ll take a lighter shoe any time we can get it, so the weight savings will surely make the Vaporfly 4 a shoe that disappears on the feet. The question is: will the sacrifices made by trimming down the midsole affect the overall performance? We’ll find out soon enough, as we’ll have the shoe in for testing in the coming weeks.

Nike knows the Vaporfly is the meat and potatoes of its performance line, and say what you will about its other offerings in the daily training range, the performance line just does not miss. It can’t miss. So we have every reason to believe that this one will hit the same as its predecessors. 

The move to lower the stack height down to 35 mm (as well as cutting the drop from 8 mm to 6 mm) is significant. We’ve long wondered if the max stack movement will see a reflexive move back to the middle– could the Vaporfly 4 be the first to take that step? If so, it’s a big deal, especially if the performance stays the same.

Part of that performance may come from the more aggressive design of the Flyplate. We’ve seen other shoes lean on their plate design to trigger a quicker turnover and more pronounced toe-off, and it looks like we’ll get some of that in the Vaporfly 4, at least in comparison to its predecessor.

Final Thoughts

I mean, we’re excited to test out the shoe. Obviously. And after we test them, we’ll have our full review on here, so check back for that.

The initial launch will include the much-sought-after Proto colorway in orange/white/black, as well as a supplemental volt/salmon colorway.

The Nike Vaporfly 4 releases on March 1, 2025 for $260 at nike.com and select global retailers. You can pick it up by using the shop links below.