Introducing: Nike’s all-new Joyride Technology

As the name suggests, Nike’s Joyride aims to provide pleasure and comfort to your everyday outings. Joining Nike’s already impressive list of cushioning innovations (i.e Air & React), the Joyride has been made to help keep your legs fresh by delivering a personalised cushioning package underfoot.

The lightweight design is made up of thousands of beads. These beads are placed within zonally-tuned pods, which in turn creates a dynamic footbed that moulds to the natural curves of your foot and expands in all directs to adapt to your footstrike – ultimately, providing you with a shoe which feels specifically made for you.

Based on the insight around how the foot connects with the ground, the heel pod absorbs higher quantities of impact, while pods at the forefoot are carefully crafted to promise a smooth stride forward. Up top, there’s also a sock-like and highly breathable Flynit uppers, while the removal of a traditional sock-liner means your feet are based on the buoyant beads underneath.

Behind the Tech

Nike Joyride is the result of intense, iterative trialling. One hundred and fifty materials were tested before landing on a TPE (a copolymer of plastic and rubber) for the beads.

The Pods were engineered to stop the beads from migrating too much around the foot. With this design, Nike designers were able to create a zonal-tuning for each respective iteration of Nike Joyride.

Beads are dispersed within the pods to align with the amount of cushioning you need for specific points of your foot. For example, there are 8,000 beads in total. 50 per cent of the beads cover the heel strike whilst 5 per cent offer cushioning at the toe.

So there we have it – all in all, Nike’s new proprietary system promises to provide a smooth transition, high levels of shock-abortion and noticeable cushioning underfoot. This will be welcome news to seasoned marathoners, prolific power walkers or streetwear enthusiasts alike, as no matter what your intentions with the Joyride are, there’s no doubt that the silhouette will wrap your feet in comfort as you’ve never experienced before.

Let’s meet the models:

Nike Joyride NSW Optik

Let’s kick things off with this women’s exclusive, the NSW Optik. A real sleek silhouette, it sports laceless uppers instead opting for a concealed zip which makes taking the pair on and off a breeze. It’s built with leather around the heel and collar for added comfort, while it’s bulky Joyride midsole elevates you to new heights with its platform profile.

Nike Joyride NSW Setter

Now let’s move onto the NSW Setter. Dubbed by Nike to be ‘The Muscle Car’ of the Joyride lineage, this slightly more aggressive model boasts a differently-styled upper and boasts robust rubber eyelets and supportive stability patch overlays. Just like the NSW Optik, the Setter also features Joyride tech in the midsole, this time set up in three separate cushioning pods.