Marathons.com
TipsÉquipementChaussuresNews

How Nike designed the Vomero Premium alongside its athletes

CL
By Clément Laborieux

Published on Fri, October 10, 2025

Updated on Thu, September 10, 2026

Add to favorite sources on Google
How Nike designed the Vomero Premium alongside its athletes
© Nike

Eighth in the marathon at the Paris 2024 Olympics, Conner Mantz represents a new generation of American runners breathing life back into the marathon. This Sunday, he will try to break the national record at the prestigious Chicago Marathon. Methodical, hard-working and hooked on training, Mantz found himself at the heart of a secret Nike project thanks to his experience and qualities: testing a prototype still unknown to the public, the Vomero Premium.

A shoe born in the shadows

Nike does not do things by halves. Always pushing the boundaries of innovation, the American brand recently reworked its entire running range around flagship models such as the Vomero, Pegasus and Structure. The Vomero, a long-standing training shoe, is now in its 18th iteration. At the top of the line sits the Vomero Premium, a high-end “laboratory” model designed to push the limits of everyday performance.

Before it became a shoe, the Vomero Premium was an idea, a philosophy. At Nike, prototypes are often developed behind closed doors. Designers cover the entire product in black to keep it under wraps and allow unbiased testing: no flashy Swoosh, no attention-grabbing design. The idea is for athletes to judge the shoe with their legs, not their eyes. It was in this setting that the Vomero Premium took shape, with Mantz directly involved.

Eighth in the marathon at the Paris Olympics, Conner Mantz represents a new generation of American runners breathing life back into the marathon. This Sunday, he will try to break the national record at the prestigious Chicago Marathon. Methodical, hard-working and hooked on training, he found himself at the heart of a secret Nike project: testing a prototype still unknown to the public, the Vomero Premium.© Nike
Eighth in the marathon at the Paris Olympics, Conner Mantz represents a new generation of American runners breathing life back into the marathon. This Sunday, he will try to break the national record at the prestigious Chicago Marathon. Methodical, hard-working and hooked on training, he found himself at the heart of a secret Nike project: testing a prototype still unknown to the public, the Vomero Premium.© Nike
Eighth in the marathon at the Paris Olympics, Conner Mantz represents a new generation of American runners breathing life back into the marathon. This Sunday, he will try to break the national record at the prestigious Chicago Marathon. Methodical, hard-working and hooked on training, he found himself at the heart of a secret Nike project: testing a prototype still unknown to the public, the Vomero Premium.© Nike
Eighth in the marathon at the Paris Olympics, Conner Mantz represents a new generation of American runners breathing life back into the marathon. This Sunday, he will try to break the national record at the prestigious Chicago Marathon. Methodical, hard-working and hooked on training, he found himself at the heart of a secret Nike project: testing a prototype still unknown to the public, the Vomero Premium.© Nike

From secret prototype to personal best

At the end of 2023, the American marathoner received an unusual prototype. A massive shoe with a 55 mm heel stack, full-length ZoomX foam, two Zoom Air units borrowed from track spikes and the look of a flying saucer. Not approved by World Athletics, the Vomero Premium cannot be worn in official races. That is not really a problem, since it was primarily designed for training.

At the time, Mantz was coming back from injury. He was short on confidence and training volume, with the Olympic trials approaching. The black prototype was a gamble. Run after run, he found himself getting his feel back and building mileage faster than expected. The shoe absorbed the kilometres, he was back over 190 km a week, and most importantly, he was enjoying running again.

A few months later, the former BYU athlete won the U.S. Olympic trials before finishing eighth in the Olympic marathon in Paris. The Vomero Premium was still unknown to the wider public and was not a shoe seen in the major marathons. But it had clearly played a role in the American's resurgence. On January 19, 2025, he even set a new national half-marathon record in Houston, running 59:17.

The Vomero Premium has become an incredibly important shoe in my career. Training in it helped me find myself again. I am really excited that the public will be able to discover it too. Being involved in every stage of testing and helping improve the final model truly meant a lot to me.

Conner Mantz, American marathon runner

From testing to trust: the process behind the Vomero Premium

The most interesting part of Nike's product philosophy is that technology is never an end in itself. It starts with a relationship, a dialogue between researchers, designers and athletes. Engineers at the Nike Sport Research Lab (NSRL) are not simply looking to measure. Their mission is to understand how athletes feel, listen to their feedback and keep refining the prototype until it becomes almost an extension of the body.

The brand therefore follows a well-defined model for developing its most innovative shoes: test the new technology in a product with no aesthetic appeal, validate it through performance, then reveal the final design once trust has been established. This process, known as “blinding”, involves concealing the prototype's visual details to avoid bias. Sensations take priority, the science can analyse reliable data, and ultimately the numbers confirm what the legs are feeling.

We never want a shoe to be a solution invented for a problem that does not exist. That would be the opposite of our approach. A shoe must come from a real problem that needs solving. Listening to athletes means getting to the heart of their needs, and that is where trust begins.

Tobie Hatfield, Senior Director, Athlete Innovation at Nike

With the Vomero Premium, this process was taken to the extreme. Mantz tested several versions: the first was too firm, the next too soft, and a third lacked support. Five prototypes later, the final version was ready: a maximalist training shoe capable of handling the extreme workload of an elite marathoner while retaining a lively feel and smooth ride. This approach is nothing unusual at Nike. It is part of the brand's tradition of prototypes that challenge convention, then win people over and become benchmarks.

Eighth in the marathon at the Paris Olympics, Conner Mantz represents a new generation of American runners breathing life back into the marathon. This Sunday, he will try to break the national record at the prestigious Chicago Marathon. Methodical, hard-working and hooked on training, he found himself at the heart of a secret Nike project: testing a prototype still unknown to the public, the Vomero Premium.© Nike
Eighth in the marathon at the Paris Olympics, Conner Mantz represents a new generation of American runners breathing life back into the marathon. This Sunday, he will try to break the national record at the prestigious Chicago Marathon. Methodical, hard-working and hooked on training, he found himself at the heart of a secret Nike project: testing a prototype still unknown to the public, the Vomero Premium.© Nike
Eighth in the marathon at the Paris Olympics, Conner Mantz represents a new generation of American runners breathing life back into the marathon. This Sunday, he will try to break the national record at the prestigious Chicago Marathon. Methodical, hard-working and hooked on training, he found himself at the heart of a secret Nike project: testing a prototype still unknown to the public, the Vomero Premium.© Nike
Eighth in the marathon at the Paris Olympics, Conner Mantz represents a new generation of American runners breathing life back into the marathon. This Sunday, he will try to break the national record at the prestigious Chicago Marathon. Methodical, hard-working and hooked on training, he found himself at the heart of a secret Nike project: testing a prototype still unknown to the public, the Vomero Premium.© Nike
Eighth in the marathon at the Paris Olympics, Conner Mantz represents a new generation of American runners breathing life back into the marathon. This Sunday, he will try to break the national record at the prestigious Chicago Marathon. Methodical, hard-working and hooked on training, he found himself at the heart of a secret Nike project: testing a prototype still unknown to the public, the Vomero Premium.© Nike

Vomero Premium: the ideal training partner for marathoners

The final design still bears the mark of this top-secret process. Its imposing, almost oversized profile was built to handle long weeks of training. This is not a Vaporfly or an Alphafly, but a premium high-mileage shoe designed to last and to support all kinds of runners.

In short, Nike is reaffirming its philosophy: innovation only has value when it addresses a real athlete need. The Vomero Premium was not designed simply to appeal to the general public, but to answer the challenges faced by a long-distance runner: returning to running with confidence after an injury and stringing together runs while maintaining high training volume.

Specifications

  • Foam: ZoomX and two Air Zoom units

  • Cushioning: maximal

  • Mono-mesh upper with a plush tongue and collar

  • Waffle-pattern outsole with highly durable rubber

  • Weight: 351 g (men's size 10)

  • Drop: 10 mm (55/45 mm), not approved by World Athletics

  • Recommended use: Daily training, including easy runs, base miles and long runs

  • Price: €229.99

Eighth in the marathon at the Paris Olympics, Conner Mantz represents a new generation of American runners breathing life back into the marathon. This Sunday, he will try to break the national record at the prestigious Chicago Marathon. Methodical, hard-working and hooked on training, he found himself at the heart of a secret Nike project: testing a prototype still unknown to the public, the Vomero Premium.© Nike
Eighth in the marathon at the Paris Olympics, Conner Mantz represents a new generation of American runners breathing life back into the marathon. This Sunday, he will try to break the national record at the prestigious Chicago Marathon. Methodical, hard-working and hooked on training, he found himself at the heart of a secret Nike project: testing a prototype still unknown to the public, the Vomero Premium.
Eighth in the marathon at the Paris Olympics, Conner Mantz represents a new generation of American runners breathing life back into the marathon. This Sunday, he will try to break the national record at the prestigious Chicago Marathon. Methodical, hard-working and hooked on training, he found himself at the heart of a secret Nike project: testing a prototype still unknown to the public, the Vomero Premium.© Nike
Eighth in the marathon at the Paris Olympics, Conner Mantz represents a new generation of American runners breathing life back into the marathon. This Sunday, he will try to break the national record at the prestigious Chicago Marathon. Methodical, hard-working and hooked on training, he found himself at the heart of a secret Nike project: testing a prototype still unknown to the public, the Vomero Premium.© Nike
Eighth in the marathon at the Paris Olympics, Conner Mantz represents a new generation of American runners breathing life back into the marathon. This Sunday, he will try to break the national record at the prestigious Chicago Marathon. Methodical, hard-working and hooked on training, he found himself at the heart of a secret Nike project: testing a prototype still unknown to the public, the Vomero Premium.© Nike

The Vomero Premium is more than a running shoe. It is the result of methodical work and an ongoing dialogue between science and instinct, researchers and runners. It shows that the most effective innovation is not always the one that makes the most noise, but the one that builds confidence and adds comfort to the running experience. In a world now ruled by carbon-plated shoes, Nike is sending a clear message: a good shoe is not made solely to look appealing. It is made to help you run better, farther and, above all, with more joy.

✔ The Vomero Premium will be available from mid-October on Nike's official website for €229.99.