The original carbon plated race shoe from Nike! Having purchased a pair of their Zoom Fly Flykit in April 2019, I really wanted a pair of their 4%. The react foam used in the Zoom Fly isn’t as responsive as the Zoom foam used in the 4%.
Purchased in July 2019 from Sportsshoes.com, they arrived the next day, and I couldn’t wait to get out and try them.
I’ve always been a big fan of the Nike Flyknit material, having owned several pairs of their other shoes with the same uppers. The 4% fit like a sock, with a nice lock-down feel, and no heal slippage. The 4% are true to size fit (UK Size 9), and feel excellent with a nice pair of thin socks.
I’ve used the shoes in several shorter races (mainly 5KM), and they have been excellent. The 10mm drop really does want to throw you forward, giving you excellent toe off.
I do tend to roll off the outside edge with my running style, and the wear pattern on these shoes highlights this. Because of how soft the foam is, the initial protective coating was very quick to wear off, exposing the Zoom foam underneath.
The actual function and responsiveness of the shoe hasn’t been affected by this. I’ve put over 100 miles on these, after swapping to using them mainly for longer tempo runs, and they are still going strong. I have 2 more pairs of these, so once the first pair runs out, it will be nice to go back into a fresh pair to see a direct comparison to how the responsiveness has diminished.
