THE NIKE FLYWIRE STORY

We’d been making shoes the same way – and that way was good.  We started with a piece of material, and if we wanted to make it stronger, we added more material.  And so and so on.  The problem was, stronger meant heavier.  The foot was supported, but at the price of freedom.

On the other hand, a lightweight shoe normally doesn’t have what it takes to support an athlete when he most needs it -- when his legs are pumping and his heart is pounding hard.  So Nike started thinking about restructuring a shoe from the ground up. With Flywire.

Nike Flywire is a lightweight support system with tensile fibers that come together and make the foundation for upper material construction.

It all started with an embroidery machine. The embroidery machine was like a printing machine for stitches.  We could actually make the strands of the fabric of a shoe align.  We wanted instant hold – one straight line that was always in tension.  We wanted the fibers to act like super strong synthetic ligaments, wrapping and supporting the foot precisely where it needs it while being incredibly lightweight.

 Remember Kevlar®?  We spun it into an embroidery-thin thread for reinforcement, and added Lycra® in area that needed power and stretch. Then we broke the outsole for extra flexibility.

The result was a shoe that actually mapped the morphology of your foot, as though x-raying them.  A shoe that acted like a second skin. A shoe that gave you ultimate freedom and ultimate strength – backwards, forwards, side to side, up, down.  Sideways.  Think of a direction. This shoe will follow.

Nike Flywire technology. After thirty-six years, we went a little farther. And so can you with the Cortez Fly Motion.