About

Nike Free RN

RN simply stands for run, and those two letters mark the moment when Nike matured its barefoot experiment. From 2016 the Free RN appeared as an annual line: the same freedom underfoot as the early Free models, but packaged as a complete daily running shoe you can wear without a break-in.

The sole tells the story of the evolution. Where the early models of the Nike Free family cut their sole into blocks, the RN generations use dozens of thin slats that flex in multiple directions. On the 2018 editions that pattern runs as a wavy fold under the entire shoe, with a field of fine nubs on the side of the midsole. The upper varies by taste: plain mesh on the base version, or a knitted sock with a high collar on the Nike Free RN Flyknit.

The naming requires some archaeology. Between 2016 and 2018 the yearly models carried the year in the name; afterwards Nike returned to the familiar numbers and continued the line as RN 5.0, a nod to the very first Nike Free 5.0 from 2005. Place an RN 2017 next to an RN 5.0 and you mainly see kinship: the same low silhouette, the same flexible sole, a different sticker on the box.

Within the family the RN is the branch for daily miles: more flexible than a cushioned trainer, more ordinary than the barefoot models the line evolved from. That exact combination made it for years one of the brand’s best-selling running shoes, and the Free you most often encounter in the wild.

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