Nike Magic Ride

Was lucky enough to be invited to Nike Singapore to test run the new Nike Lunar an event which Nike called the Magic Ride Run. Among the invited people today were Roonz and Wendy also from sgrunners, Sumiko, others from the tri fam and a celebrity, Jessica Tan. After a short intro by Sacha, each of us were given a pair of socks, a pair of Lunar Trainer and a towel. Some lucky fellas who came without any running attire were also given t-shirt and shorts. A lucky lady got to test drive (wrong) run in the Racer simply because they didn't have the trainer in her size.

According to the Nike website, the Trainer and the Racer are both extremely lightweight cushioning shoes featuring the new Nike technology known as 'Lunarlite foam'. Apparently the people at Nike got their inspiration from the moon where everything was supposed to be lighter than air. The lunarlite foam is also supposed to spread the pressure evenly across the foot thus reducing the impact on the bones and joints. In addition, carbon rubber has been placed in strategic locations to increase the life span and durability of the shoes. The main differences between the 2 is that the Racer has flywire filament, the type of high tension wire that is used for suspension bridges whereas the trainer has the normal mesh. This made the Racer even more lighter without losing any of the cushioning.

So how did this mumbo jumbo performed on the road? We did a short 4km run round the Changi Business Park. Most of the runners were in common agreement that is has very good cushioning although there were some feedback that the side of the shoes could cause abrasions. According to Sacha, the design of the sole using the 'Free' technology will give a smoother run for heel strike runners.

So in my usual rough way, I test drive the shoe by running mid sole, heel strike and even bouncing up and down. Maybe it is the short run, or the slow pace of the run, but I couldn't really appreciate any remarkable technology leap that the Nike Lunar has over other shoes although it was certainly comfortable enough to run in even without my orthotics insole. One thing though is that the Nike Lunar as compared to the other stylo milo Nike shoes looks like a very poor cousin - just white with a rather luminous lime yellow sole - good for visibility but not terribly exciting. A quick check on the net though revealed that there are Red and Black version available in the US so hopefully when it is launch here in October, they will bring in the different colors. The other thing is that the design of the shoe especially around the nid foot caused the shoes to look very wide especially on my size 12 foot Apparently this is for stability control. Does it really work?

I shall reserve further review until another run.

Date of Purchase: 18 August 2008

Cost: FOC (trial shoe)

Purchased from: Complimentary from NIKE Sg

Worn in Races:

14 Sep 2008 KPE Swing 2008
28 Mar 2009 Head Over Heels Couple Run 2009

Retired: 15 May 2009

Total Mileage: 388.05km