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Nike's no stranger to making futuristic , experimental shoes , but the company's new Nike Air Zoom Hyperslide , created in collaboration with Hyperice, might make owning high-tech footwear something close to affordable. Like the companies’ $800 Hyperboot , the slides are built for recovery, but this time with a design that doesn't make you look like an astronaut. And at $249, the price seems reasonable in comparison.
"Athletes leave everything on the field, and the approach to recovery needs to meet them at the same level," Tobie Hatfield, Nike's Senior Director of Athlete Innovation, said in a statement. "With the Nike Air Zoom Hyperslide, we wanted to create a solution that kickstarts recovery the moment you power it up—helping athletes feel more relaxed, restored, and ready to take their performance to the next level."
The Nike Air Zoom Hyperslide looks both medicinal and luxuriously comfortable, the kind of slipper you might expect to receive at a futuristic private hospital. They share similarities in silhouette and shape to other shoes like Nike's ReactX Rejuven8 or Calm 2.0 but with prominent sole cushioning and a large top strap that holds a "Hyperslide Pod" that delivers heat and vibration to the top of your feet.
The pods magnetically slot into each slide and are capable of moving between three levels of heat (maxing out at 117 degrees Fahrenheit) and three levels of vibration. Heat and vibration run in 15-minute recovery cycles, and Nike says they can be controlled via buttons on the Hyperslide Pods themselves or a connected Hyperice app.
The company suggests the slides could help "reduce tension, relax feet, and support everyday recovery" and are just as useful for athletes as they are for "people managing travel, work, and everyday movement." You could potentially achieve similar effects with a warm compress and a massage gun, but Nike and Hyperice are offering a more targeted approach wrapped in what seems like a comfortable shoe. The Hyperslide is obviously missing the compression features of the Hyperboot, but by looking and wearing more like traditional shoes, it might get more use, too.
The Nike Air Zoom Hyperslide will be available for $249 on September 29 from Nike, Hyperice, and other select retailers globally.
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