A lot of comments are casting doubt on why “athletes” would be interested in this product. In the bike world, electric pedal assist bikes have become very popular. I have some family members who are avid cyclists. They do 100+ miles a week. As they have gotten older (60+) they were losing the ability to engage in social rides with their bike friends, but e-bikes have solved that issue by giving them just a small boost needed to keep up.
I could see this doing the same for older runners if the tech gets good enough.
“Athlete” != “professional athlete” the word encompasses a wide range of people and abilities.
Yeah, stuff like this is great for people who want to be outside and get some exercise, but aren't doing it for the purpose of competing with anyone.
I personally love hiking. I love going into nature, seeing new places, and being away from people. But there are times where I go for a slightly easier course instead of the one I actually want to do, because that few extra hours would absolutely wreck my body, especially since I'm often hiking in different places for several days. A little boost would be nice.
And with e-bikes, they're great for commuters and people just riding around their neighborhood. Lots of people ride them in my town for doing shopping trips. More affordable than a car, better for the environment, better for your health, and people who otherwise would take a car because they can't deal with pedaling uphill or long distances have a great alternative. I imagine powered shoes will be the same. People who feel like they're too old/out of shape to walk long distances often opt for cars, but if powered shoes give them the confidence to walk, it's far better to take an electronically assisted walk than to sit in a vehicle.
I'd like such technology very much, as I lack about 80% of my calf muscles due to an auto immune disease. I can't walk without a (non powered) exo skeleton, and perhaps with these I can walk stairs again.
I completely agree my mother has MS and I have my own autoimmune issues. Something like this would be extremely helpful for people with debilitating diseases that cause muscle deterioration.
I'm a huge fan of "slightly better walking/running" kind of tech. Unfortunately, current technology lends itself to devices that are slightly too heavy. I have a pair of Shift Moonwalkers[0] that I was hoping would fulfill that role.
A motorcycle accident interrupted my fitness program and it took quite a lot of work to get back to where I am. During that period there were many times when I was (minorly) injured repeatedly since all my muscles were just not strong enough to do things and I wasn't disciplined about them.
I picked up some persistent tendinitis that is just healing with some physiotherapy. Things like this aren't terribly limiting in life but the primary problem is that a lot of the stuff you have to do is rest the appropriate body part! And to rest it, you need to not do things. I don't want to not do things. I want to do things while resting the appropriate part of my body.
And I bet as I get older, all this stuff will catch up. So anything that will extend mobility to my elderly years (still far away) is great. If I do the right things, my body will function well into my 80s and if the tech is there hopefully I'll walk around with my grandkids. All in all, I'm hoping that material science in batteries, motors, and frames and product design all do a big leap in this in the next 40 years. The market is likely there with our aging population.
> This makes it easier for everyday athletes to walk or run more often, for longer amounts of time, while having more fun — adding movement to their lives, extending their walking commute, or helping them to enjoy the run for another mile or two.
The people I know who run all do it for the exercise, not because they like the running. Why would you want to extend it?
For those of you who don’t “see the point” of a device like this, what you are failing to see is your own personal use case.
The use cases I can see for others are “anyone who might find this useful or fun”. To me, that means
1) people with medically compromised joints who would like to engage in experiences that their bodies don’t currently allow.
2) people who want to challenge themselves by making these joint additions add more resistance.
3) people who want more strength and/or power for any reason. “Fun” is a valid use case.
These joint enhancements exist for hips, knees, and with this, now ankles. The logical end for this is a powered exoskeleton (and, after that, power armor).
> 1) people with medically compromised joints who would like to engage in experiences that their bodies don’t currently allow.
They say:
> Engineered to augment natural lower leg and ankle movement
Meanwhile, most people who can't walk/run as they would like have issues from their knees upward.
Worse, having heavier lower leg means more strain on the upper leg.
Yes, there's probably a narrow niche of people with lower leg only issues that can be helped by this device, but most people have issues upward ; and this device have the potential to create issues upward on people not yet concerned by them.
If it was a medical company I'd agree a bit more. But it's Nike. They'll sell that to any person who thinks walking is too hard even though it's not in his best medical interest.
> 1) people with medically compromised joints who would like to engage in experiences that their bodies don’t currently allow.
And medically compromised muscles, nervous systems, etc. I know someone in that situation who loves scooters. They say it's like flying - they finally can move at will, instead of the lifelong difficulty and pain of walking.
I find running incredibly boring, because the scenery changes so damn slowly around you. I would happily put in the same effort for the same time, but go substantially faster to make it more fun.
Not sure I would buy this product, but I see more than 0 use for it.
> because the scenery changes so damn slowly around you
Have you considered running faster?
But seriously though, I’ve gotten pretty decent at running (3h15min marathon PR) and the difference between hiking a trail and running the same trail is kinda bonkers. These days I can run a trail in 2 hours that took me 6 hours to hike 10 years ago. Hits totally different. The whole dynamic changes.
Hiking feels immensely boring now
PS: If you run fast enough you don’t even notice the scenery.
Getting off topic but this is exactly why, after never running for fun in my life, I got into cycling (a hobby that admittedly can easily turn expensive even if it doesn't have to).
Instead of running 10km in an hour, I could bike from Silicon Valley to the ocean and back in 3-4 hours, and have views over city, hills, oceans, suburbia, etc.
There is nothing natural about the motions of running in modern running shoes, and yet people learn. Getting the behavior right will be difficult, I'm sure, but not impossible.
Wild! Looks like it pulls your heel up so reduces energy requirement of each up stroke? Seems like it would need to be super light to offset carrying more mass?
Are there any actual videos of this, you know, in use? All I see is a bunch of 3d renders of it. There isn't even a picture of a Nike executive holding a prototype.
When Nike was working on the Mags (self-lacing) there were lots of hobby projects to try and build the same thing, but none of them could come close to the finish and integration that Nike could manage with their resources and industrial processes.
"designed to help everyday athletes* go a little bit faster and farther"
When is the last time an athlete said I'm looking to go a little faster and farther with the aid of a powered device? Their target market is all wrong. This would be great if aimed towards low mobility users.
> and Nike will rip you off with the price for "western engineering".
It's the brand more than anything. Nike's brand commands a premium.
I've quite literally never seen a product like this on the market, so as far as I'm concerned if Nike is the first to Western market with the product, and they do a good job introducing it, it's their innovation.
It's like with Nintendo and Apple. They're quite frequently not the first to develop a technology, but they take things and popularize them. Digital cameras, motion control, touch screens, smartphones, tablet gaming devices, ...
> the power comes from pistons that are filled with a fuel-air mixture, and fired by compression when the user puts his or her full body weight down into the boot
Bikes and cars are modes of transport. They're optimal for getting around at high speeds, but when you don't need them, you need to leave them somewhere, they're large and not very convenient. On the other hand, these are shoes. You put them on in the morning and can wear them anywhere outside, they're not separate things you need to handle. I can definitely see demand for this from people who walk all day long for their jobs (warehouse workers, military, etc) or hikers/runners who want to stretch their endurance over a larger distance.
I would like to have something like this if it helped me with e.g. shin splints, or similar, because I really love running, but I tend to overdo it and I don't have any other options than asphalt to run on. Not sure if this one would be good for shin splits though. I guess this could potentially just be a fun thing to run a bit faster, but that alone wouldn't be worth it for me. But if it allowed me to balance where the strain goes, then yeah.
I was going to comment the same thing, rather than push off harder, I'd hope it help brace for impact and relieve some of the weaker muscles.
Yes, I should perhaps be doing strength training, but I have limited hours to exercise and I'd prefer to spend them running rather than training so that eventually I could be running.
Another thing that happens is that your technique gets worse during longer runs, making you more prone to injuries. Maybe a device like this could either support you so you can run longer runs or compensate to make sure you don't hurt yourself.
So if this device helps with reducing running based injuries, I'm all for it
I have an electric cargo bike that I put in one of the lowest settings, if I cycle at the top speed it doesn't help much if at all. But accelerating from a dead stop is nice. This could be similar
Off topic, but for what it's worth I'm getting myself a rowing machine to try and alleviate my running cravings, especially as winter is coming. I'm not sure if it will be able to reproduce the feelings I get from running as I haven't done rowing enough, but running seems to be the only thing I've found that puts me into this flow state. Cycling is too limited, legs only, HR doesn't get high enough, so hopefully rowing is better due to it being full body. Rowing won't be outside and I won't be physically moving around so that may be the downside. But the metrics to achieve should be much more consistent and comparable compared to if there's many weather changes otherwise, so looking forward to seeing progress there.
It’s somewhat funny that you mention shin splints and technique breakdown, both of which can be helped through regular gym going but also want a shortcut rather than the obvious solution.
Shin splints really do suck though, I had some that put me off running for about 12 months.
Maybe they can be helped, and I've read suggestions like these as well, but I used to do a lot of strength training, including not skipping leg days, and still got shin splints. So strength training might decrease odds for some people, but I don't feel like it would be deciding factor for me.
Might be good for the last mile commuting problem, where people need a way to get from their home to a bus stop that is a mile or two away. A bicycle is not a good solution because then you have to take it on to the bus and to your destination.
I wish that existed too. Not just an event to see how far the human body can be pushed naturally, but also another one to see how far it can be pushed, period. There would still need to be regulation to ensure that people didn't actively harm themselves (like extreme doping or something), but other augmentations like exoskeletons and such would be allowed.
I see this more applicable to the military and law enforcement, but yes also for the elderly and disabled. Yeah, the opening line with “athletes” doesn’t make sense.
There are already powered leg augmentations on the market for $3-5k, but these are much smaller.
A lot of comments are casting doubt on why “athletes” would be interested in this product. In the bike world, electric pedal assist bikes have become very popular. I have some family members who are avid cyclists. They do 100+ miles a week. As they have gotten older (60+) they were losing the ability to engage in social rides with their bike friends, but e-bikes have solved that issue by giving them just a small boost needed to keep up.
I could see this doing the same for older runners if the tech gets good enough.
“Athlete” != “professional athlete” the word encompasses a wide range of people and abilities.
Yeah, stuff like this is great for people who want to be outside and get some exercise, but aren't doing it for the purpose of competing with anyone.
I personally love hiking. I love going into nature, seeing new places, and being away from people. But there are times where I go for a slightly easier course instead of the one I actually want to do, because that few extra hours would absolutely wreck my body, especially since I'm often hiking in different places for several days. A little boost would be nice.
And with e-bikes, they're great for commuters and people just riding around their neighborhood. Lots of people ride them in my town for doing shopping trips. More affordable than a car, better for the environment, better for your health, and people who otherwise would take a car because they can't deal with pedaling uphill or long distances have a great alternative. I imagine powered shoes will be the same. People who feel like they're too old/out of shape to walk long distances often opt for cars, but if powered shoes give them the confidence to walk, it's far better to take an electronically assisted walk than to sit in a vehicle.
The linked article says this at the end:
> * If you have a body, you are an athlete.
I'd like such technology very much, as I lack about 80% of my calf muscles due to an auto immune disease. I can't walk without a (non powered) exo skeleton, and perhaps with these I can walk stairs again.
I completely agree my mother has MS and I have my own autoimmune issues. Something like this would be extremely helpful for people with debilitating diseases that cause muscle deterioration.
Are you using something like this? Do you get back most of your previous functionality?
https://newatlas.com/unpowered-ankle-exoskeleton-walking-eff...
Wow, that's awful. Have you looked into the existing powered exoskeletons? Or are those too hip/thigh focused to help?
There's some excellent knee ones, too
Yeah, but do they still work when us-east-1 goes down?
if it does I am buying this for my daughter to replace roomba which doesn’t :)
... Because currently, your daughter rides around on a Roomba? And this will allow her similar freedom of movement, but more fault-tolerant?
I'm a huge fan of "slightly better walking/running" kind of tech. Unfortunately, current technology lends itself to devices that are slightly too heavy. I have a pair of Shift Moonwalkers[0] that I was hoping would fulfill that role.
A motorcycle accident interrupted my fitness program and it took quite a lot of work to get back to where I am. During that period there were many times when I was (minorly) injured repeatedly since all my muscles were just not strong enough to do things and I wasn't disciplined about them.
I picked up some persistent tendinitis that is just healing with some physiotherapy. Things like this aren't terribly limiting in life but the primary problem is that a lot of the stuff you have to do is rest the appropriate body part! And to rest it, you need to not do things. I don't want to not do things. I want to do things while resting the appropriate part of my body.
And I bet as I get older, all this stuff will catch up. So anything that will extend mobility to my elderly years (still far away) is great. If I do the right things, my body will function well into my 80s and if the tech is there hopefully I'll walk around with my grandkids. All in all, I'm hoping that material science in batteries, motors, and frames and product design all do a big leap in this in the next 40 years. The market is likely there with our aging population.
0: Here's an example of me using them after I got used to them https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qc5PKbJ3tq4
I am that older guy. For sure it catches up.
How would this impact muscle development? Is the motion "natural', not just for e.g. the calf but also all the (minor) other muscles?
Also. Would this change strain put on e.g knee joints, ankles, hips or spine?
> This makes it easier for everyday athletes to walk or run more often, for longer amounts of time, while having more fun — adding movement to their lives, extending their walking commute, or helping them to enjoy the run for another mile or two.
The people I know who run all do it for the exercise, not because they like the running. Why would you want to extend it?
Because now they might dislike it less (depending on what they dislike). People do more of things they like.
I run for exercise, but I also genuinely enjoy it as an activity
I understand what you're saying on an intellectual level.
Why did they picked sport they dont like?
The people I know who stuck to running long term like it.
"If one could run without getting tired I don't think one would often want to do anything else" -C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle
For those of you who don’t “see the point” of a device like this, what you are failing to see is your own personal use case.
The use cases I can see for others are “anyone who might find this useful or fun”. To me, that means
1) people with medically compromised joints who would like to engage in experiences that their bodies don’t currently allow.
2) people who want to challenge themselves by making these joint additions add more resistance.
3) people who want more strength and/or power for any reason. “Fun” is a valid use case.
These joint enhancements exist for hips, knees, and with this, now ankles. The logical end for this is a powered exoskeleton (and, after that, power armor).
> 1) people with medically compromised joints who would like to engage in experiences that their bodies don’t currently allow.
They say:
> Engineered to augment natural lower leg and ankle movement
Meanwhile, most people who can't walk/run as they would like have issues from their knees upward.
Worse, having heavier lower leg means more strain on the upper leg.
Yes, there's probably a narrow niche of people with lower leg only issues that can be helped by this device, but most people have issues upward ; and this device have the potential to create issues upward on people not yet concerned by them.
If it was a medical company I'd agree a bit more. But it's Nike. They'll sell that to any person who thinks walking is too hard even though it's not in his best medical interest.
> 1) people with medically compromised joints who would like to engage in experiences that their bodies don’t currently allow.
And medically compromised muscles, nervous systems, etc. I know someone in that situation who loves scooters. They say it's like flying - they finally can move at will, instead of the lifelong difficulty and pain of walking.
I find running incredibly boring, because the scenery changes so damn slowly around you. I would happily put in the same effort for the same time, but go substantially faster to make it more fun.
Not sure I would buy this product, but I see more than 0 use for it.
> because the scenery changes so damn slowly around you
Have you considered running faster?
But seriously though, I’ve gotten pretty decent at running (3h15min marathon PR) and the difference between hiking a trail and running the same trail is kinda bonkers. These days I can run a trail in 2 hours that took me 6 hours to hike 10 years ago. Hits totally different. The whole dynamic changes.
Hiking feels immensely boring now
PS: If you run fast enough you don’t even notice the scenery.
I mean... I run as fast/far as fitness permits. I'm not going slowly on purpose!
If you go at light speed across the universe, the scenery would also not change, until you collide with something.
When you collide with something at light speed, you become the scenery (and the former scenery is no more), no?
Getting off topic but this is exactly why, after never running for fun in my life, I got into cycling (a hobby that admittedly can easily turn expensive even if it doesn't have to).
Instead of running 10km in an hour, I could bike from Silicon Valley to the ocean and back in 3-4 hours, and have views over city, hills, oceans, suburbia, etc.
It sounds great, but I’m skeptical that it will actually help without messing up the natural motion.
There is nothing natural about the motions of running in modern running shoes, and yet people learn. Getting the behavior right will be difficult, I'm sure, but not impossible.
Wild! Looks like it pulls your heel up so reduces energy requirement of each up stroke? Seems like it would need to be super light to offset carrying more mass?
The batteries belong on a hip belt, not down where the foot swings
> rechargeable cuff battery that seamlessly integrate with a carbon fiber–plated running shoe
I'm sure it's science fiction right now but a pair of shoes that could teach you to do a kick flip would be pretty amazing.
Pair with some power gloves to catch your fall and maybe I can learn to skateboard as my mid life crisis activity down the road.
Are there any actual videos of this, you know, in use? All I see is a bunch of 3d renders of it. There isn't even a picture of a Nike executive holding a prototype.
https://youtu.be/Psp3YarOKVw
Mrwhosetheboss did a video on the new Nike stuff including these
Has anyone 3d printed something similar? Looks doable - motors and servos are really cheap on AliExpress
When Nike was working on the Mags (self-lacing) there were lots of hobby projects to try and build the same thing, but none of them could come close to the finish and integration that Nike could manage with their resources and industrial processes.
These Amplify are pretty complicated:
https://youtu.be/Nz2Y0e7SgFY?t=404
I’m going to be ripped once the powered arms do my lifting for me.
Come to think of it, why is Superman muscular?
It's a start, but we're going to need a powered full exoskeleton, with armor, for fighting Nazis.
"designed to help everyday athletes* go a little bit faster and farther" When is the last time an athlete said I'm looking to go a little faster and farther with the aid of a powered device? Their target market is all wrong. This would be great if aimed towards low mobility users.
> an athlete said I'm looking to go a little faster and farther with the aid of a powered device
isn't that a time-honoured tradition at tour de france?
Related:
Nike's plans to put the swoosh back into its sales
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/oct/23/just-redo-it-i...
These are already common in China, and Nike will rip you off with the price for "western engineering".
Can you link some? I can only find the hip exoskeletons.
> Nike’s Project Amplify is the world’s first powered footwear system for running and walking,
So this is straight up false?
> These are already common in China
Link?
> and Nike will rip you off with the price for "western engineering".
It's the brand more than anything. Nike's brand commands a premium.
I've quite literally never seen a product like this on the market, so as far as I'm concerned if Nike is the first to Western market with the product, and they do a good job introducing it, it's their innovation.
It's like with Nintendo and Apple. They're quite frequently not the first to develop a technology, but they take things and popularize them. Digital cameras, motion control, touch screens, smartphones, tablet gaming devices, ...
Pales in comparison to Soviet science ;-):
> the power comes from pistons that are filled with a fuel-air mixture, and fired by compression when the user puts his or her full body weight down into the boot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_boots
https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/these-gas-powered-bo...
Seems to be these ones, and bunch of more videos in the description too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJvmAXCh6Ak
I don’t get the point. Maybe there’s a therapy angle? But otherwise if someone wanted to go faster they could go to a bike, e-bike, or car.
Bikes and cars are modes of transport. They're optimal for getting around at high speeds, but when you don't need them, you need to leave them somewhere, they're large and not very convenient. On the other hand, these are shoes. You put them on in the morning and can wear them anywhere outside, they're not separate things you need to handle. I can definitely see demand for this from people who walk all day long for their jobs (warehouse workers, military, etc) or hikers/runners who want to stretch their endurance over a larger distance.
I would like to have something like this if it helped me with e.g. shin splints, or similar, because I really love running, but I tend to overdo it and I don't have any other options than asphalt to run on. Not sure if this one would be good for shin splits though. I guess this could potentially just be a fun thing to run a bit faster, but that alone wouldn't be worth it for me. But if it allowed me to balance where the strain goes, then yeah.
I was going to comment the same thing, rather than push off harder, I'd hope it help brace for impact and relieve some of the weaker muscles.
Yes, I should perhaps be doing strength training, but I have limited hours to exercise and I'd prefer to spend them running rather than training so that eventually I could be running.
Another thing that happens is that your technique gets worse during longer runs, making you more prone to injuries. Maybe a device like this could either support you so you can run longer runs or compensate to make sure you don't hurt yourself.
So if this device helps with reducing running based injuries, I'm all for it
I have an electric cargo bike that I put in one of the lowest settings, if I cycle at the top speed it doesn't help much if at all. But accelerating from a dead stop is nice. This could be similar
Off topic, but for what it's worth I'm getting myself a rowing machine to try and alleviate my running cravings, especially as winter is coming. I'm not sure if it will be able to reproduce the feelings I get from running as I haven't done rowing enough, but running seems to be the only thing I've found that puts me into this flow state. Cycling is too limited, legs only, HR doesn't get high enough, so hopefully rowing is better due to it being full body. Rowing won't be outside and I won't be physically moving around so that may be the downside. But the metrics to achieve should be much more consistent and comparable compared to if there's many weather changes otherwise, so looking forward to seeing progress there.
Fwiw I find the stairmaster to be the least boring of the cardio machines when looking for a replacement for running.
That thing will make you sweat.
Have you tried rowing and you found that more boring? I feel like rowing with added bonus of training more muscles would seem most fun?
Yeah tried it and I personally found it less fun.
The tension on the hands feels very good though. And I do wonder if it also trains muscles around ankles that will help prevent shin splints.
It’s somewhat funny that you mention shin splints and technique breakdown, both of which can be helped through regular gym going but also want a shortcut rather than the obvious solution.
Shin splints really do suck though, I had some that put me off running for about 12 months.
Maybe they can be helped, and I've read suggestions like these as well, but I used to do a lot of strength training, including not skipping leg days, and still got shin splints. So strength training might decrease odds for some people, but I don't feel like it would be deciding factor for me.
Might be good for the last mile commuting problem, where people need a way to get from their home to a bus stop that is a mile or two away. A bicycle is not a good solution because then you have to take it on to the bus and to your destination.
Lots of people walk long ways for different reasons. I'm very dubious that this will ever be a thing but there's definitely a market.
I assume there is a military angle here.
I want to see a competitive sports event like the Olympics where this sort of technology is allowed.
I wish that existed too. Not just an event to see how far the human body can be pushed naturally, but also another one to see how far it can be pushed, period. There would still need to be regulation to ensure that people didn't actively harm themselves (like extreme doping or something), but other augmentations like exoskeletons and such would be allowed.
It sounds fun tbh (not to mention all the potential medical uses)
What about a hike just on the edge of your ability?
I see this more applicable to the military and law enforcement, but yes also for the elderly and disabled. Yeah, the opening line with “athletes” doesn’t make sense.
There are already powered leg augmentations on the market for $3-5k, but these are much smaller.