Nike Vomero Premium Review

🔍 Deep Dive

In no uncertain terms, the Nike Vomero Premium is a bad running shoe. It’s even worse than the Pegasus Premium; the taller and softer midsole is extremely unstable, making it unsuitable for most recreational runners (the target consumer group), heavy runners, heel strikers, and overpronators. The only exception would be lightweight neutral runners who run slow, in which case the shoe does just ok. And if you plan to run fast in these shoes, the midsole sink, complete absence of proprioceptive feedback, instability, and weight will slow you down. The other two variants – the Vomero 18 and Vomero Plus – are absolutely fine. We strongly recommend that you buy the Vomero 18 for versatile everyday comfort, or the Vomero Plus if you prefer extreme plushness, but without the boat-like dynamics of the Vomero Premium.

So what makes the Vomero Premium such a terrible running shoe? The answer lies in Nike’s marketing materials that claim to combine dual Zoom Air units and ZoomX foam to produce 55 mm of ‘supernatural stack heights’. With a claimed 10 mm heel-to-toe drop, the forefoot is 45 mm tall, dwarfing other max-cushioned trainers. But the issue isn’t just with the absurd 55 mm stack. The midsole looks and behaves like a concept design that looks great on media, but too impractical to be released into the real world. Our biomechanical animation based on our high-speed image data explains what happens under different scenarios (refer to the ‘mechanics at work’ breakouts), but let’s unpack some of what’s going on here.

The biggest flaw is the lack of midsole sidewall support. Nike claims that the shoe has ‘wide nets and rockered shape for stability and transitions.’ Sure, the outsole footprint is very wide indeed, but that alone does not make the shoe stable. Unlike the Vomero Plus (which has similar stack heights, by the way) that has filled-up sidewalls, the Vomero Premium takes out much of the sidewall foam to expose the Zoom Air bags. Sure, while that makes the shoe look very cool, the ride stability is severely compromised.

Nike has prioritized form over function, so the forefoot and heel outsole have large windows to expose the large ‘Zoom Air’ branding. These large cavities further decrease midsole stability by reducing the material that can support landings and transitions. The Vomero Plus has a solid core with a full-length rubber outsole, so it’s easy to see why its on-road experience is well behaved and remarkably different.

The midsole’s weak structure causes it to compress excessively. Our biomechanics animation for the heel striker profile shows the extent of compression at midstance. Significant compression happens, both vertically and sideways. It’s worth pointing out that the Vomero Premium uses the same Zoom Air unit as the Nike Maxfly 2 track spike, but the latter’s midsole setup is nothing like the Vomero Premium. The Maxfly 2 relies on just the Zoom Air for its forefoot cushioning, while the full-length carbon Flyplate and base plate (with the spike receptacle) add stiffness above and underneath the Zoom Air unit.

This particular Zoom Air unit is actually split down the midsole, meaning two independent chambers – less stable than a traditional Zoom Air bag, seen in models like the Pegasus 40. The split nature aggravates the sideways roll. Unlike the Maxfly 2 spike, there’s no stiff plate on top and bottom – it’s soft foam all around. So if the weak sidewalls cause the foot to roll medially or laterally, the split construction of the Zoom Air aggravates the roll.

As for the so-called rocker, that also doesn’t work as intended. The forefoot Zoom Air bag isn’t curved, but straight, and doesn’t extend to the toe box. Our mid-pack biomechanical animation shows what happens during the forefoot loading phase. As the large toe prepares for push off, it struggles to find a firm base where to launch from. So the large toe sinks into the soft ZoomX core past the Zoom Air runway. And just like the heel, the forefoot also has a cavity, thus reducing the contact patch during the roll-off phase.

The mushy and unstable ride greatly increases the workload for the lower limbs, as the foot struggles to stabilize the body during landing, transitions, and takeoff. Avoid this shoe, even if you get a pair for free. The Vomero Premium is as much a running shoe as the Nike Joyride and VaporMax were.