I’m writing this as I wait to catch my flight out to Singapore for the Singapore Aquathlon, where I will be using the new Nike React Infinity Run shoe nearly straight out of the box for the 3K run leg of the aquathlon.
Now, the only reason I’m using this particular shoe this weekend is that Nike gave some select sports influencers (including yours truly) a sneak preview. We started the night off at Single Origin in Bonifacio High Street, where Nike EKIN Soy Soriano and Nike ambassador Coach Rio de la Cruz talked about the innovation featured in the Nike React Infinity Run.
While Nike has definitely staged a coup in its performance shoe offerings with the Nike Vaporfly NEXT% (so much so that the NEXT% could be banned from professional athletics competition), with the React Infinity Run it focuses on another aspect of the sport that most runners believe is important: injury prevention.
From the press release:
The Infinity Run provides a soft, responsive platform (with React) and delivers it with a widened midsole. Similar to the geometry of the 4%, the Infinity has a rocker-like bottom that yields a more fluid transition from foot strike to toe off. The wider platform, and the supportive foam that accompanies it, provides a reassuring feel — the shoe gently guides the foot in a smooth, straight line, reducing side-to-side wobbling and movement.
These attributes make the Nike React Infinity Run ideal for the kind of runs that don’t fall into the silo of interval or tempo, long run or race. This shoe matches best to base-run days, those middle-mileage, moderate efforts. In fact, an external study by the British Columbia Sports Medicine Research Foundation (BCSMRF) on 226 runners in the Nike React Infinity Run and the Nike Structure 22, a traditional motion control shoe, showed that runners in the Nike React Infinity had a 52 percent lower injury rate than in the motion control shoe, with wearers confirming that they felt less pain in their knees and feet.
Nike wants to promote the concept of variable training: running at different distances and intensities (and presumably, in different shoes for different kinds of workouts) to improve your running as well as prevent overuse injuries.
- LONG RUN – As the name suggests, these workouts are a runner’s highest mileage and usually slowest speed, and are meant to build muscle endurance (along with mental fortitude). Frequency: Typically once a week
- BASE RUN – Mid-range in mileage and performed at a comfortable pace, these bread-and-butter efforts are the bulk of a runner’s mileages. Frequency: Two or three times a week
- INTERVALS AND FARTLEKS – Alternating high-intensity sprinting with a period of recovery, these short bursts build speed and stamina. Intervals are commonly performed on a track to dial in precise distances, while fartleks are often spliced into base runs. Frequency: Once or twice a week
- TEMPO RUN – These mid-distance, faster sessions push a runner to a challenging speed — think 85 percent of maximum effort — to help build the strength and endurance to run fast for longer periods of time. Frequency: Once or twice a week
- RECOVERY RUN – Typically performed after a muscle-depleting race, time trial or hard workout, these runs are short in distance, easy in intensity and meant to give the body the opportunity to bounce back while continuing to log miles. Frequency: As needed
While the Nike React Infinity Run can’t be classed as a regular stability shoe given the upper is made completely of Flyknit with few structural reinforcements, the secure feeling in the arch as well as the wide midsole base do help guide your foot through the run stride.
To experience this for ourselves, those of us present were issued our own pairs and guided through a special Nike Run Club session and a “sexy pace” 3K run.
I found the Nike React Infinity Run comfortable enough to consider using them for my race this weekend, and when I ran in them again yesterday my decision was confirmed. I don’t intend on going fast, and because I am carrying more weight than my body is used to, I want to buffer impact as much as possible. I found the Nike React Infinity Run very light on my feet, but with plenty of cushion as well as bounce. The Flyknit gives the shoe plenty of breathability and keeps my foot securely locked down without strangling my arches, unlike most socklike uppers. And of course who can resist showing off that flashy colorway?
Depending on the shoe last Nike uses, I can be a size 8 or 8.5. While I was issued the Infinity Run in size 8.5, my narrow foot could just as easily have slid into the 8 due to the wide midsole and Flyknit upper. If you do plan on copping a pair, it’s best to try them on in-store.
The Nike React Infinity Run retails for P 8,095 and will be exclusively available this January 23 for Nike Members at the Nike Park Mall Of Asia opening. Sign up for this exclusive preview using the Nike Run Club app!
The retail launch is set at January 30, 2020. Visit https://news.nike.com/news/react-infinity-run for more details.
