Shop Nike Joyride Sneakers

The main focus is on the fun of running, while a multitude of special beads within the midsole should give both casual runners and professional athletes a feeling of lightness. So whether you're running your first kilometre or already competing in a marathon, the Nike Joyride should provide a fun and lightweight experience for everyone.

In April 2019, the Vaporfly Next% was introduced for the first time. The novel running shoe was specifically designed to achieve top speeds. What does this have to do with the Nike Joyride? Just a few months after the release of the Vaporfly, it came onto the market with a completely different goal. The brand-new runner went ahead with the guiding principle that running is not always about breaking record times. On the contrary, everyone should be allowed to enjoy the sporting activity. According to Kylee Barton, the person responsible for innovation and development at Nike, the health and social aspects of running are also extremely important. In collaboration with athletes, she and her team worked for almost ten years on a complete innovation in the form of the Joyride. The sneaker is supposed to ensure excellent comfort as well as a feather-light feel, so that it even supports the runner during recovery. That's quite a statement!

To be able to fulfil these promises at all, a pretty clever technology is of course required. In the case of the Nike Joyride, thousands of small rubber balls are used, which are located in the so-called pods. These pods are hollow spaces within the midsole, which are supposed to provide improved damping and even more cushioning with the help of the beads. The advantage of this? The rubber balls are very dynamic and can thus adapt to the different loads and movements of the runner. You can almost imagine the whole thing as a miniature ball pool. In addition, they always move to the place with the highest pressure and can therefore absorb it very effectively. In general, the midsole is fairly evenly filled with the special material for a stable rolling motion, but there are certain areas where a different ball density makes sense. In the toe area, for example, the beads have been distributed in such a way that you get maximum energy return when running and thus an even smoother roll-off is possible. The heel, on the other hand, has been equipped with the most rubber balls, as this is where the most energy is usually accumulated during an impact. In order to maintain the very lightweight overall appearance of the Nike Joyride, the familiar Flyknit material was also used for the upper. This ensures that you get an all-round airy feeling when running.

A large number of testers report that the material used is actually redistributed when running. This means that the running experience can still feel very pliable, especially in the beginning, while noticeable changes can already be felt after a few kilometres. The very soft experience still remains very "soft", but the energy return in particular is supposed to be even more noticeable. It is precisely this experience that Kylee Barton describes as "Joy of the ride", which ultimately gave the unique sneaker its unmistakable name. We are definitely looking forward to seeing what other shoes the Joyride beads will be used in and how the special technology will develop.