Nike Zoom Fly 6

The Nike Zoom Fly 6 is the training version of the brand's beloved Alphafly and Vaporfly racing shoes. The Alphafly 3 with its soft, cushioned and aggressively bouncy ride is one of our favorite shoes out right now, so ostensibly, the Zoom Fly 6 should be awesome as well. However, we found the Zoom Fly lacks the magic of Nike's racing shoes—while it boasts a tall stack height and a top layer of racing foam, we found the carbon plate's positoning close to the foot to be ineffective and borderline uncomfortable on a 23 mile long run test. The shoe's performance on a speed workout with 6 reps of 1 minute surges at 10k pace was solid, rivaling the marathon training category leaders like the Hoka Mach X2 and Brooks Hyperion Max 2, but the underfoot feel just doesn't stack up. If you can find this on sale at $140 or lower, which is an eventual inevitability given Nike's pricing strategy, it will be a solid bargain buy and serviceable option, but at full MSRP we recommend either of the aforementioned shoes or the Asics Magic Speed 4 (soft, light, fast) or Puma Deviate Nitro 3 (bouncy and protective for everyday miles). Also note—the bottom layer of the midsole here below the plate is not ZoomX, contrary to what the giant word stamped on the side of the heel would lead you to believe. It's a standard training foam called SR-02 that is cushioned but not particularly energetic. While we're at it, we do also have to give Nike credit for making one of the best training uppers of the year here.