Nike has no shortage of absolutely classic and groundbreaking silhouettes in its catalog, but that doesn’t stop the label from innovating time and time again. The Air units, in particular, are a pillar for Nike, and they’re about to receive a major update in the Pegaus Premium runners.
Debuting Nike’s first sculpted and visible Air Zoom unit, the Pegasus Premium is designed to give runners versatile cushioning that’s contoured to the natural shape of the foot using that new Air Zoom unit. This unit (which stretches from the forefoot to the heel) works alongside the ZoomX foam in the midsole and the ReactX foam in the heel for smooth landing and transitions. Rather than designing around the flat Air Zoom units like they traditionally would, Nike used AI and computational design to mold the Air unit to mimic the natural shape of the foot. Up top, there’s a knit upper to give you a secure fit over the footbed, and it’s reinforced in the areas of the shoe that need more support during a run (specifically the lateral and medial forefoot).
As usual, Nike’s designers were hard at work in the lab to get this new cushioning system off the ground, using technology like finite element analysis, which helps predict how a silhouette will react to physical forces, giving designers the info they need to craft this new Air unit. Kathy Gomez, Nike VP of NXT Footwear, puts it best when she says, “Air is Nike’s separator in the footwear industry — no one can create cushioning innovations like we can.”
The Nike Pegasus Premium will drop in spring 2025 in the “Airscape” colorway featured here; while there’s no official word on pricing quite yet, you can keep it locked on Nike’s official channels to keep an eye out for it, along with the release date.
