The Warm-Up

There’s high-demand for a pair of racing f lats going for well above the us$ 1,500 mark.

Nike’s Breaking2 shoe, the Nike Zoom VaporFly Elite, is not available for sale publicly and has been released only in limited quantities at special events for a hefty price. (Breaking2 is the term coined for the sub-twohour marathon attempt which occurred in May 2017.) Searching for the Vaporf ly Elite on eBay brings up several buyers asking for more than us$ 1,000, including one at us$ 2,340.

According to Stock X, a l ive bid-a sk marketplace, the Elite is selling for an average of us$ 1,125, making it one of the most expensive shoes ever made.

A variation of the Zoom Vaporf ly Elite, the Zoom Vaporf ly 4%, is available to the public at a price of $330 although the product is often unavailable online because of high demand. The main differences between the Elite and the 4% are a Flyknit upper on the Elite, a sock-like ankle wrap and individual specifications geared towards each of the three Breaking2 runners: Eliud Kipchoge, Lelisa Desisa and Zersenay Tadese. Notably, the 4%, which was inspired by the Breaking2 shoe, was found to improve running economy by an average of four per cent (versus the Nike Streak 6) in a lab study.