by Annie Vischer
Whilst talking through my gym footwear choices with a Nike rep at the launch of their brand new Nike Women’s Zoom Fit Agility (£100.00), I admitted that I normally wore my Nike Flyknit Air Max. She did not look impressed. In fact she looked rather horrified. ‘Sooo that’s a running shoe’, she clarified, ‘For the gym, you need to get going in a training shoe’. Ah.
The trouble is when it has come to training shoes in the past, I’ve always been a little bit of a wuss. I know you need the flexibility, I know you need the close fit, but I hate feeling like I’m walking around barefoot. There’s something so comforting about having the support there, and the reassuring little bounce of cushioning on the sole.
This is where the new Nike Zoom Fit Agility comes into play. Its Nike Zoom Air composition gives you a little extra spring, and who doesn’t need that? The tightly stretched fibres that are woven within the Nike Air unit allow for equal and continuous support during the sort of quick and multi-angular movements that you are likely to encounter during HIIT training, PT training sessions, and gym-based routines.
The most noticeable differences in the design are the hexagonal rubber pods that make up the sole of the training shoe. They have been positioned to give cushioning and support where their research has shown that the female athlete needs it most.
To test the new design we were taken through a hard core HIIT routine by Nike ambassador Anya Lahiri. If anything was going to put the new design (and us!) through its paces, this was. And whad’y’a know…support, flexibility and one good looking design all in one!
There it is, they’ve done it, I’m a training shoe convert!