“Nike Flyprint uppers are produced through solid deposit modeling, a process whereby a TPU filament is unwound from a coil, melted and laid down in layers,” the brand explains in a news release.
Here, 3D printing technology has been used to make a high-performance sports shoe that can be customised in relation to athlete data, “to help the world’s fastest distance runners run their fastest,” according to Nike.
Nike’s Flyprint upper makes its debut in the Nike Zoom Vaporfly Elite Flyprint running shoe, created for the 33-year-old Kenyan athlete and driven by his feedback from the Berlin Marathon in September. The new upper improves the Vaporfly Elite shoe and makes it 11g lighter.
The Nike Zoom Vaporfly 4% running shoe, promising an average running economy of four per cent – notably thanks to a full-length curved carbon fiber plate embedded in the sole.