© Nike
How Nike Designed the Vomero Premium Hand in Hand with Its Athletes
Eighth at the Paris 2024 Olympic Marathon, Conner Mantz represents a new generation of American runners breathing life back into the marathon. This Sunday, he’ll line up in Chicago aiming to break the national record. Meticulous, hardworking, and obsessed with training, Mantz was the ideal athlete to be at the heart of one of Nike’s most secret projects — testing a mysterious new prototype: the Vomero Premium.
| A Shoe Born in the Shadows
When it comes to innovation, Nike doesn’t do things halfway. The American brand has recently restructured its entire running lineup around core models — Vomero, Pegasus, and Structure — while pushing each further than ever before.
The Vomero, a long-standing daily trainer, has reached its 18th generation. But at the very top of that family now sits the Vomero Premium — a “lab shoe” built to redefine what everyday performance can mean.
Before it was a shoe, the Vomero Premium was an idea — a philosophy. Nike often develops its prototypes in secrecy. The shoes are covered entirely in black, stripped of logos and visible design elements. The goal? To make athletes judge with their legs, not their eyes.
No flashy Swoosh. No marketing gloss. Just pure performance feedback. And that’s exactly how the Vomero Premium was born — through direct collaboration with Mantz himself.
| From Secret Prototype to Personal Record
Late in 2023, Mantz received an unusual prototype: a massive training shoe with a 55 mm stack height, full-length ZoomX foam, two Zoom Air pods borrowed from track spikes, and a futuristic, almost spaceship-like look. Not approved by World Athletics, the Vomero Premium isn’t meant for official competition. But that was never the point — it was built for training.
At the time, Mantz was returning from injury, short on confidence and mileage with the U.S. Olympic Trials looming. The mysterious black prototype arrived as a gamble. Run after run, he began to feel like himself again — logging mileage faster, recovering better, and enjoying the process.
Soon he was back above 190 km (120 miles) per week, pain-free and training with joy. A few months later, the former BYU standout won the U.S. Trials and placed eighth at the Olympic marathon in Paris. Though the Vomero Premium remained unknown to the public — never worn in major races — it had quietly fueled his comeback. Then, on January 19, 2025, Mantz broke the U.S. half marathon record in Houston with a stunning 59:17.
“The Vomero Premium has become an incredibly important shoe in my career. Training in it helped me rediscover myself as a runner. Being involved in every testing phase — helping shape the final model — really meant a lot to me.”
Conner Mantz, American marathoner
| From Testing to Trust: The Process Behind the Vomero Premium
Nike’s product philosophy has always been clear: technology is never an end in itself. Everything starts with a relationship — a dialogue between scientists, designers, and athletes.
At the Nike Sport Research Lab (NSRL), the engineers’ mission isn’t just to measure performance — it’s to understand what athletes feel, to listen, and to adjust until the shoe becomes almost an extension of the body.
Nike’s approach is systematic:
1. Test innovation on a visually “neutral” product.
2. Validate it through performance and data.
3. Reveal the final design only when the trust is built.
This process — called “blinding” — ensures that an athlete’s judgment isn’t influenced by appearance. When visuals disappear, only sensation remains, allowing the science to capture honest feedback.
“We never want to create a shoe that solves a problem that doesn’t exist. That would go against everything we do. A shoe has to start from a real athlete’s need. Listening to them — that’s where trust begins.”
Tobie Hatfield, Senior Director of Athlete Innovation, Nike
With the Vomero Premium, this process was pushed to the extreme. Mantz tested multiple prototypes — first too firm, then too soft, then one lacking stability. After five iterations, the final version emerged: a max-cushioned training shoe built to handle the brutal mileage of elite marathoners while maintaining bounce and fluidity.
This isn’t new for Nike — it’s part of a long tradition of experimental prototypes that eventually reshape what runners expect from their shoes.
| Vomero Premium: The Marathoner’s Daily Companion
The final design reflects its secretive origins: a bold, oversized silhouette built to endure long weeks of training. It’s not a Vaporfly or Alphafly, but rather a premium daily trainer, engineered for heavy mileage, durability, and versatility across all types of runners. In essence, the Vomero Premium reinforces Nike’s core belief: innovation only matters when it meets a real need. This shoe wasn’t designed to dazzle consumers — it was designed to help athletes overcome real challenges, like rebuilding confidence after injury and sustaining high training loads over time.
Tech Specs
- Foam: Full-length ZoomX with dual Zoom Air units
- Cushioning: Maximal
- Upper: Mono-mesh with plush tongue and collar
- Outsole: Waffle-patterned, ultra-durable rubber
- Weight: 351 g (men’s US 10 / EU 44)
- Drop: 10 mm (55 mm heel / 45 mm forefoot) – not World Athletics compliant
- Intended use: Daily training (easy runs, long runs, endurance sessions)
- Price : $230
The Nike Vomero Premium isn’t just another running shoe — it’s the result of a methodical dialogue between science and instinct, between the people who design and the people who run. It proves that the most effective innovation isn’t always the loudest one — it’s the one that builds trust and comfort. In a running world dominated by carbon plates and flashy performance claims, Nike delivers a different message: A great shoe isn’t just made to look fast — it’s made to help you run better, longer, and with more joy.
✔ Available mid-October on Nike.com for $230.
Clément LABORIEUX
Journalist
