Editor’s Note, October 19, 2026: In almost a month, the long-awaited Alphafly 4 is set for release on October 29. As we wait for the launch, the Alphafly 3 is still available. Brownie points if you knew the waffle iron and Swoosh go a long way back.
It was the early 1960s when University of Oregon track coach Bill Bowerman cofounded Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS) with one of his runners, Phil Knight. BRS was a proprietor of Onitsuka Tiger’s athletic shoes before manufacturing its own product. Depending on who you believe, Bowerman customized running shoes using a waffle iron either in the early 1960s, when he gave pairs to his athletes to compete in, or in 1971, the same year BRS was renamed Nike, after the Greek goddess of victory.
And that’s how legends are born (and shoe awards are given). You can read Knight’s side of the story by reading Shoe Dog, or watch Prefontaine or Without Limits for a more dramatic tale about one of the University of Oregon’s star athletes with Nike’s origin story in the background (the 1997 movie is the superior of the two, IMHO). Since the dawn of the Swoosh, the brand has rocked the running industry boat with its innovations.
In the past 10 years, for instance, the Vaporfly 4% appeared on the scene, creating mass ripples of new World Athletics guidelines, academic studies on super shoes and running economy, and world records such as the late Kelvin Kiptum’s superhuman 2:00:35 at the 2023 Chicago Marathon. Back in my early days at Runner’s World in 2018, the first Nike shoe I tested—and ran in—was the inimitable Vaporfly. The shoe left an impression, causing me to never turn back from racing marathons in carbon-fiber-plated trainers.
But one thing that made me move on to other brands’ super shoe iterations was the narrow fit and unstable ride of Nike’s racers. All the more to show the brand’s ever-continuing evolution into being the best as well as more inclusive. Battle of the Brands: The Best Brooks Running Shoes ● The Best Adidas Running Shoes ● The Best Mizuno Running Shoes I’ve run and raced in several of the shoes on this list.
As a Nike newb when I was hired at RW, I was schooled in the Swoosh’s indelible influence on the running industry—our magazine’s first issue came out six years after Nike’s renaming—and witnessed the dawn of the super shoe. All of the shoes on this list were tested by members of our 300-and-counting test team of local runners. They come from all walks of life, varying by gait pattern, arch height, and footstrike.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
