About

Nike Free

The idea for Nike Free didn’t come from a lab but from a grass field. Nike employees saw at the start of this century how running coach Vin Lananna had his athletes finish training barefoot at Stanford, believing that feet get stronger when you let them do the work themselves. That insight became a shoe in 2005: the Free 5.0, with a sole that wants to get out of the way as much as possible.

That sole is immediately the identifying feature of the whole line. Deep grooves lengthwise and crosswise divide it into small blocks, allowing it to fold with the foot like an accordion. The number in the name serves as a scale: the lower the number, the closer the shoe is to barefoot running, with the Nike Free 5.0 as the middle ground between bare and cushioned. On the side of many versions the line name is simply stamped into the midsole.

The family grew far beyond running. The Nike Free RN became the everyday running branch, the Nike Free Flyknit combined the folding sole with a knitted sock, and in the gym the Nike Free Metcon took over, with flexibility at the forefoot and firmness under the heel for strength work. The most notable detour is the Nike Free Inneva Woven, which places a fully hand-woven upper on the distinctive sole and thus turned a training concept into a lifestyle shoe.

Even the football field made an appearance: with the Free Mercurial and the Free Hypervenom, Nike put the folding sole under street versions of its football boots, partly via the HTM design group in which Hiroshi Fujiwara, Tinker Hatfield and Mark Parker collaborated. That explains why the selection on this page ranges from understated running models to sought-after collectible items.

On this page you can see which versions of the Nike Free are currently the hottest according to the Hypescore, from which price they can be found and in how many shops they are in stock.