Nike Free

We all remember running barefoot around the cross country course, the school field or the football pitch when we were young. We were fast, nimble, agile and we could always run faster than our parents. That was because the action of running unshod throughout our early days enabled our feet to develop an impressive intrinsic strength, which also meant we very rarely got injured (apart from a few stubbed toes, and glass cuts) until we were told we had to start running in shoes. Ever since then we have been getting injured, stiffer and some of us have even slowed down. Wouldn’t it be great to get back to those barefoot days and retrieve some of our youth?

The Nike Free in my mind has been the most controversial, but revolutionary development in footwear design since the inception of an integrated cushioning system into a shoe’s midsole and look who pioneered that feature – Nike. The Free’s introduction has polarised the sports science community and I congratulate the Nike design team for doing this, as a paradigm shift has been long overdue. The influence the typical running shoe has on ones biomechanics can sometimes provide the answer to the few cases where conventional therapy has failed. However, it must be emphasised that our understanding of the Nike Free is constantly developing and that it can really only be assessed on a case by case basis. Whilst, what you will read about this shoe from me is largely anecdotal and based on my own observations, there have been and are currently some very specialised tests being performed on the Nike Free and the results of which will be available in due course.

I must say, I am surprised with the reaction I get from my peers, colleagues and clients when they see that I wear this shoe as a serious running shoe. It should be obvious why this shoe gets so much road time on my feet. As I have a mildly pronated foot when running, and am prone to shin injury I require strengthening, greater coordination and more efficient muscle firing to the musculature of the leg and foot – namely the tibialis posterior, flexor hallucis longus, flexor digitorum longus abductor hallucis and the gastrocnemius/soleus muscles. I have built myself up from wearing the shoe only as a walking shoe to being able to wear them for regular runs up to 1 hour in duration on a variety of terrain, I have even worn them for the run leg of a sprint triathlon and often use them for drill or speed work sessions. I have been wearing this shoe regularly since October 2004, and not only has it helped in healing an injury I had at that time, but I have remained injury free since – a feat that is most unusual for me but one that the use of the Nike Free as a training tool has played a part in.

I have however come to the conclusion that this shoe is not for everyone. And my observations have suggested that a rigid limited range of motion foot may not suit the shoe if used for running, regardless of whether the foot is pronated or supinated. Bear in mind that if the range of motion and biomechanics are improved over time through stretching etc then there is no reason why the Free cannot be worn as a running shoe – obviously this needs to be monitored. If the wearer has a supinated foot with an adequate range of motion through the joints of the foot then it should make a great supplement to their existing training shoes.

I have found that the Nike Free does work extremely well for the hyperpronated, unstable foot type, particularly those people who are prone to injury. In this particular case there is very little tone to the various muscles of the foot, and those muscles that have their origin in the leg but tendons pass down to the foot seem to be easily overridden by stronger muscles. The resultant eccentric contraction of the weak muscles ultimately leads to pathology. This explains why these people are prone to chronic injury – the muscles are either over worked and become injured through fatigue or are too weak and cannot withstand the forces applied to them, which in a biomecanically sound foot would not be as much of an issue.

This is all very well, but how exactly does the shoe achieve this function and why does it differ from a conventional stiffer, shanked shoe? The key to the Nike Free is that there is no support structure at all, and this is where most people are turned off considering it as a serious shoe. For years the accepted style of foot wear has been one of a stiff heel counter with a stiff midsole and a reliable cushioning system. Now this is still the basis behind a sound shoe and should grace every runner’s wardrobe, however what this structure does is create a foot that essentially becomes lazy and too reliant on the support of the shoe it is enclosed in. This might be fine for some people who will constantly wear the same shoe for training and racing, and never kick around barefooted or in a pair of slip-ons, jandals or sandals. But what about those athletes who wear a racing shoe with much less support than their trainers, spikes for cross country or those who would like to wear a lighter training shoe, and especially those who have nagging chronic injuries that can’t be shaken with conservative measures.

The Nike Free has a unique structure to its outsole and midsole. It contains sipes (channels) of varying depths in a longitudinal or latitudinal direction in either a straight or a curved shape. These have been scientifically positioned to allow the foot to transfer its weight from the rearfoot at initial contact to the toes at propulsion without placing any external influence on the foot – giving that barefoot feel, without the risk of stubbing toes or cutting the foot. There is no specific cushioning to speak of in the sole, apart from the Phylite material. This is because the foot’s ability to absorb and disperse shock is also important in developing the intrinsic muscle strength, and this will enable our body to withstand the impacts of a running stride over a prolonged period.

You will notice that there is no strength to the heel counter (the material surrounding the heel). This is due to the fact that with the foot working in a barefoot simulation there is no requirement for the external heel support provided in a normal running shoe. The upper is also very light and gives a sock like feeling. There are two insoles provided with the shoes (5.0 and 4.5). The 4.5 version is essentially less supportive and therefore should be utilised after the 5.0 sole has been worn for an extended period of time. I waited for my first pair of Free’s to wear out before I started using the 4.5 in my new ones – and they still feel great.

The women’s model is slightly different due to the differences between the genders according to the Nike research team. The heel aspect of the women’s shoe is slightly higher than the men’s owing to the anatomical variance between the two. Also there is an extra flex groove under the toes since the female shoe requires more flexibility here.

Certainly after the first few runs in the Nike Free you will feel the muscles within the foot working harder – this is evidenced by tightness within the medial arches of the feet. Whilst it may seem unnerving to experience this, it is actually a good sign. An indicator that the shoe is training the foot to work properly and this may prove to you that your foot hasn’t been working efficiently for sometime. The shoe is very light and very smooth – quite literally like running barefoot.

Steve Monaghetti has suggested that this shoe performs best when worn off road – on grass or trails because we would very rarely run barefoot on the road anyway. I agree with this, however I have also found that this shoe is still very comfortable and functions normally when worn on road. The best thing is to go out and try it in a variety of situations. Push the boundaries a bit and see what happens.

In the Free, Nike have created a shoe designed to take us back to basics, remove all the gadgets and enforce us to rely on an intrinsic strength rather than external forces such as supportive footwear or orthotics. This has addressed a number of questions left unanswered as to why various injuries have developed or perhaps not even settled down. It has given athletes that little extra performance advantage by preparing the foot to stabilise itself, and therefore essentially make the transition to wearing racing shoes that much more smooth. The Nike Free may not be for all and monitoring its use and gaining professional advice should be implemented. I’m sure this is just the start of things to come and that the future versions of the Nike Free (4.0, 3.0 and maybe 2.0) will really push the boundaries of footwear. But don’t get rid of your normal training shoes, they should still provide the basis for the majority of your training but by all means add a pair of Nike Free’s to that ever evolving training kit.