Nike’s Newest Super Shoe, the Alphafly 4, Sells Out in Under Five Minutes

Nike’s newest marathon racing shoe sold out faster than most of us can run a mile.

The Alphafly 4, released on Thursday in what Nike called a limited run, sold out across every market where it appeared, and buyers who did not already have a pair in the cart at launch were mostly too late.

By Marathon Handbook’s tracking, the shoe sold out in the United States in just under five minutes. In Europe it went faster, disappearing from Nike’s country-specific sites almost immediately. In some markets it never appeared at all: Nike’s Canadian site did not seem to even list the shoe.

Nike has not said how many pairs were made available, and the company does not typically disclose inventory for limited releases.

The shoe was unveiled at 8 a.m. ET on Thursday and sells for $280 USD. Nike has said it will release the Alphafly 4 more widely on Oct. 29, through its own stores and website and through retail partners, and has confirmed the shoe will be available in Chicago over the weekend of the Chicago Marathon on Oct. 11.

This is the second time an Alphafly launch has ended this way. When the Alphafly 3 arrived in a limited colorway in January 2024, it sold out in under a minute, and runners complained on social media about the scarcity and about resale listings at more than double the retail price. Nike responded by adding a second colorway that spring.

We’ll continue to track eBay and aftermarket vendors for updates on the resale market for the Alphafly 4.

What sold out

The Alphafly 4 is the fourth version of Nike’s flagship marathon racing shoe, which the company introduced in 2020 after Eliud Kipchoge ran the first sub-two hour marathon in history wearing a prototype pair at the 1:59 Challenge in Vienna.

The gap since the Alphafly 3, two years and eight months, is the longest between versions in the line.

Nike says the shoe is about five percent lighter than the Alphafly 3 and returns more energy. Most of that comes from two changes. The midsole adds a new grade of Nike’s ZoomX foam, a PEBAX-based material, called ZoomX LT, which the company says is up to 17 percent lighter than standard ZoomX and returns eight percent more energy. The pressurized air units under the forefoot have been rebuilt using radio frequency rather than heat, making them lighter and softer.

The shoe is also wider through the midsole, forefoot and carbon plate, and Nike says it is quieter. Earlier Alphaflys squeaked audibly at footstrike, a complaint Nike’s athletes raised repeatedly during testing.

Bret Schoolmeester, Nike’s vice president of running footwear product management, described the Alphafly 4 as the largest improvement in the franchise’s history at a briefing for reporters on Monday.

Why it matters to Nike

The Alphafly 3 was among Nike’s most successful racing products, and the Alphafly 4 is built to widen that audience further. Nike has presented it as a shoe for marathon runners at every level rather than for elite competition alone.

The timing matters for the company beyond running. Nike shares have fallen roughly 40 percent this year, making it the worst-performing stock in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and closed last week at $38.40, near a 12-year low. The company reports earnings on Oct. 1.

Nike has been the footwear and apparel sponsor of the Chicago Marathon since 2008. Jacob Kiplimo, who won there last year in 2:02:23 and ran 2:00:28 at the London Marathon in April, will defend his title in October, and could aim to run a sub-two hour marathon in the shoe.

Marathon Handbook first saw the Alphafly 4 in person at The Running Event in San Antonio in December and was briefed on it in detail on Monday. We will speak with Schoolmeester next week about the Alphafly 4 and Nike’s future plans for super shoes. Look for that conversation on our podcast feed and YouTube channel.