Nike Alphafly 3 - NEXT% or Not?

In this video I discuss the naming conventions that Nike has used for running shoes over the past few years, including the Nike Alphafly 3 (and I do my best Dwight Schrute impression when explaining why it doesn't have "NEXT%" in the name).
Note - I am partnered with Nike, but I am not a Nike employee. The information in this video is based on my experience and understanding of the names over time.

[@TimGrose]

I remember when what we now think of as the "Vaporfly 1" came out I usually referred to it as just the NEXT% to distinguish it with the Vaporfly 4% that came before it. Of course I feel us runners only ever talk in terms like Pegasus 40 or Vaporfly 3 or Alphafly 3 etc etc so logical for the "headline" name to be like that. On my AF3 box I bought from SportsShoes the Nike label on the box says "Alphafly NEXT% 3 Proto" whereas the SportsShoes label also prefixes "Air Zoom". And then you could go into colours. I feel I have a "White" shoe in the AF3 "Proto". Nike say White/Black-Phantom ! Indeed usually you get 3 colour variants in the official description.

[@benjohnson763]

It makes sense on the Vaporfly NEXT% being called the NEXT% at the time, but I always felt it was unfortunate that's how the naming went.
Side note - I wish they would have just called that one the Vaporfly 3 (since it was the 3rd version - not counting the Vaporfly Elite, but that never had a mass release). But 3 is a lower number than the 4 in "4%" so I don't think they wanted that at the time.
Naming at the vendors/shops (and media publications) can be all over the place depending who types it all in.
Nike color names generally include most/all of the colors in the design, even if only very small amounts. Like the original Alphafly 1 being dubbed "Valerian Blue" despite only the inner heel pad and the tiny fibers hidden in the black upper having this color. Haha.

[@michaelcaricoo]

Really informative, I like this style of video (along with the others you do), they always relay the information very cleanly

[@aSkibidiRunner]

So many shoes 😅

[@markdelcambre]

Thanks Ben. This was informative. I would love to try some of Nike’s Race shoes, but we don’t have any stores around me that carry them 😢.

[@drfunk1216]

Running shoe names have gotten kinda absurd with adidas. Like what’s with the adidas adizero adios pro evo 1

[@casual.runner]

quite a lesson but is the Zoom Fly now just Fly? given the vaporfly and dragonfly...shouldn't then the basic zoom fly be known as the house (baseline) fly? 😅😅
and to be legacy-accurate, is it the Nike Air ZoomX Next % Alphafly Atomknit 3?🤣

[@benjohnson763]

There is also a "Rival Fly" so it keeps the "Zoom" for "Zoom Fly".
The original Alphafly was the "Nike Air Zoom Alphafly NEXT% Flyknit" - no mention of ZoomX because the Air Zoom differentiated it from the Vaporfly, and it has Atomknit, but still said Flyknit in the name (Atomknit is a form of Flyknit).
So to be truly accurate to the past it probably would have all those words, as well as a "3" thrown in there. 😂

[@casual.runner]

@@benjohnson763 Nike Air Zoom Alphafly Next% Flyknit 3 then. nice ring to it =)

[@robbristle5642]

ZZZZZ.

[@TheDuathlonShow]

All I can think of while listening to this nonsense name salad: "Statements dreamed up by the utterly deranged" "Look at what Nike has been demanding your respect for all this time" "They have played us for absolute fools"

[@RWG0914]

You can't review other brads?

[@gorohit]

Just like in coding when the method/function names start getting ridiculous after a while 🙂

[@bananadude9642]

Ah hah 😂😂😂😂