The NikeCourt Air Zoom Zero is the first tennis shoe to employ full-length Zoom Air and it is the first time a Nike shoe has featured an articulated curved Zoom unit.
NikeCourt, Nike’s tennis wing, has used Breaking2 data and researched the movements of tennis players to help create a solution for the variety of movements tennis footwear must endure.
“For the Zoom Zero, we were incredibly focused on court feel,” said footwear designer Matthew DeAlmeida in a statement. “We saw a lot of success from the innovations behind Breaking2. We asked ourselves, what can we provide that’s specific to tennis? What’s a Zoom Bag arrangement that will give tennis players the best court feel, every match?”
The two main components the NikeCourt team looked at when designing the NikeCourt Air Zoom Zero was the curvature of the Zoom unit (to create a precise transition from heel to toe) and the durability of the Zoom (in order to withstand the movements of a tennis player).
Now the big question: why curve it in the first place? Curving the Zoom unit is the solution the NikeCourt team found to provide the best of a top-loaded and bottom-loaded Zoom Air unit all in one Zoom unit.
Nike has been tight-lipped regarding additional details on the unit’s curvature and pricing information. The brand also just lost its largest tennis star — Roger Federer — to Uniqlo.
The NikeCourt Air Zoom Zero is set to release globally in three colors on July 19. Stay tuned to WearTesters.com for more information regarding this release.
Share your thoughts on the NikeCourt Air Zoom Zero and its curved Zoom unit in the comments below.
Source: Nike
I would totally ball in these.
Ball till you fall my friend…Ball till you fall
So the heel is top loaded and the forefoot is bottom loaded, but they are connected? Sounds pretty good and they look clean too
This is coming to the Kyrie line ?
Man, that would be fire as I’m sitting here thinking about it.
Its nice to see Nike admit that you can have court-feel AND solid cushion at the same time.
The idea seems like one of those simple experiments that took an inexplicably long time to try out, and then they got the colored sketches with the grid lines and the graph. “Dat Breaking2 data tho”. C’mon man. lmfao.
I think Nike/AJ rants are worn out, but this is the brand opting to use reject sketches by Tinker to keep churning out some form of retros.
Why does it have to be connected, though? Can’t you just have a bottom-loaded unit in the forefoot and a separate top-loaded unit in the heel?
I understand your point, but that’s like asking why people love full length zoom, it’s the plush and smooth transition. When you heel strike the air from the heel is forced to the forefoot, so as your for rolls onto the fore foot you get maximum protection.
It is not the first one, though. The Zoom Unit in the Pegasus 35 already has a curved shape (also took insights of the Vaporfly 4%, which have the carbon fibre plate)
Yip I think they met first time in a tennis shoe.
If they would make this into a basketball shoe, I think it is best for them to make the forefoot to be unlocked zoom. Can it be possible or am I just asking for too much?
Curved Zoom Air?? That’s very interesting!
Nike will still find a way to make the zoom not bouncy…would rather ball in budget K Swiss leather tennis shoes that have structure and durability, since the cushion will still honestly suck lol.
cushion doesn’t need to be bouncy all the time the concept of cushioning is to mitigate the effects of the downward Force on your body via your feet ankles shins knees hips and back all the way up your skeletal structure so with that said cushioning doesn’t necessarily have to be bouncy, it just has to work. the bouncy side of it however, basically gives the user that sense of feedback and thus confidence when you can actually feel it work.
By the way this is not the first curved zoom unit, that would be the Pegasus 35….you welcome.
Man if they some how found a way to implement this tech into a basketball shoe targeted to guards who desire the court feel over impact protection, that would be super dope! Thought they used this one the Pegasus 35, which is great! Means they are really digging into other sport departments.