Nike Fly Wire... Do They Work? (survey)

Does FlyWire Really Work?!

  • YES!

    Votes: 20 42.6%
  • NO~

    Votes: 27 57.4%

  • Total voters
    47
  • Poll closed .

se0what

Rookie
Lately there has been alot of talk on TT about the nike flywire
many people have mixed feels but i not many people have a reason
Do you think the nike fly wire really works?
please care to explain why or why not.


Thanks~


My Though: Yes! In this thread-
http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=303988&highlight=flywire+broke

the fly wire thread broke which means it does hold tension to some degree
locking your foot in.





FINAL VERDICT

Yes it works, but not on the vapors...
in track, basketball, and some other sports the flywire does shows that is useful
 
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JoelDali

Talk Tennis Guru
They have no bearance on the performance of the shoe.

As for the break, that could have been caused by anything, such as bumping into something with the side of your shoe.

They're tiny little threads not steel beems.
 

JoelDali

Talk Tennis Guru
I've brutalized my Oreos and none of the flywires have broken.

They are rubbish, but do add a nice accent to the shoe.

I just ordered black and grey ballistics.

I'm done with Vapors. For now.
 

PED

Legend
Does flywire enable nike to make a sub 14 oz shoe that's quick as hell and looks good, yes.
 

se0what

Rookie
one question to all the NO~ say'ers
why would nike make a product that adds even a little bit of weight to the product just for asthetics
cause i've tried on the:
hyperdunk
hyper rize
zoom kobe IV

they all have flywire and they feel really stable when i make cuts to switch direction in bball
 

JoelDali

Talk Tennis Guru
Because 99.99% of the people that buy Vapors are not asking stupid questions like this. They were a great looking shoe, but it appears Nike has listened and the stiff material of the Oreos and V6 will now be dropped for a more V5ish/BC construction with Ballistic inner plushness.

If you think little bits of thread that weigh hardly anything help your basketball footwork, then thats really awesome.

They don't do a thing for tennis but it sounds really cool when you hand over that $120.
 

Noveson

Hall of Fame
Honestly, I don't really care. The hyperdunks are one of the best basketball shoes every made, they weight practically nothing, and they had flywire. It obviously aint hurting the shoe
 

theProdigy

Rookie
the flywire helps bring down the weight by supporting the mesh material with high-strength tensile wires in key areas where support is needed most. it replaces the need for a whole leather/synthetic leather upper.
 

Pwned

Hall of Fame
the flywire helps bring down the weight by supporting the mesh material with high-strength tensile wires in key areas where support is needed most. it replaces the need for a whole leather/synthetic leather upper.

High tensile wires? Rip it apart and see. It's a soft string there purely for aesthetic effect. Anyone who thinks flywire is doing anything else to their shoes probably is going to buy a BLX racquet so they can have the power of Pompeii in their racquet.
 

se0what

Rookie
Rip it apart and see. It's a soft string there purely for aesthetic effect.

i think the fiber is like the carbon weaves
if you put it in together it's brittle
but put it apart from each other and they are really firm
this goes with all string of anykind
if you take kevlar apart its just strands twisted together

im not saying it works or not but im saying what your saying is total bs
if you pull at the fly wire (one strand of it) does it rip apart?
 

JoelDali

Talk Tennis Guru
I will rip mine apart and post pics tomorrow.

In addition, I will be playing sets Tuesday night, and I will rip all the flywires out of my Oreos and post results for you.

If I break an ankle God help us all and blame it on the fuchen missing flywire. Perhaps ripping them out will produce a more stable shoe or an injuriously epic fail.
 

mtommer

Hall of Fame
It's a soft string there purely for aesthetic effect.

"Soft string" holds together bundles of newspapers weighing quite a few pounds. The flywires being string is moot. What's important is what would happen overtime to the mesh cloth the wires are supposed to be helping to support.

Now, I don't see the physics of how the flywires could actually provide more support than the shoe laces. From the brief view of the marketing pitch I saw from Nike the flywires are supposed to act like a suspension bridge. Okay, but then where's the tensioned upper segment that the flywires would be connected to thereby causing tension on the flywires and "holding" the shoe in check to prevent the foot from flopping off of the sole bed? I suppose as you tighten the laces the flywires could be pulled into tension. Still, given the material of the Vapors I think the flywires wouldn't be needed.

What would be interesting to see is how the feel of Nike's running shoes, the source of flywires originally, would be without the flywires. Running shoes typically DO have much more flimsy mesh in the higher end shoes for to prevent rubbing blisters and to aid in breathability. Play tennis or basketball in running shoes and one realizes just how little support they offer. In this case I think maybe we would get a better understanding of the benefits of flywires, if there are any to be had. Any runners here?
 
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se0what

Rookie
What would be interesting to see is how the feel of Nike's running shoes, the source of flywires originally, would be without the flywires. Running shoes typically DO have much more flimsy mesh in the higher end shoes for to prevent rubbing blisters and to aid in breathability. Play tennis or basketball in running shoes and one realizes just how little support they offer. In this case I think maybe we would get a better understanding of the benefits of flywires, if there are any to be had. Any runners here?

very true
i looked into a catalog and saw track spikes that were about 5-8 ounces
then i saw a nike fly wire spire that was 3.4 ounces
so i see were your going...
point well made...
and btw the running shoes are alot more stable with flywire cause it feels more stable with it instead of just mesh
 

robbie_mx

Rookie
Not for my vapors, but for Basketball shoes really works... i have a pair of Nike hyperize for basketball and are really light and comfortable..
 

staedtler

Rookie
From what I read, the only flywire shoes that use real vectran, are the track shoes and maybe a few running shoes. The hyperdunks just use a high strength nylon, but not quite vectran. Now Im not saying flywire doesnt add any support, but I would say most of the support comes from the TPU laminate, the plastic thats welded over the Flywire.
 

SuperFly

Semi-Pro
It's probably some sort of high-strength nylon they use for their flywire. It wouldn't make a whole lot of a difference. What I would like to see is solidified d3o material as flywire. I was at a science museum and they had a bucket of the stuff in there. It looks like liquid but when you press down on it it becomes completely solid. That's support.
 

robbie_mx

Rookie
Not for my vapors, but for Basketball shoes really works... i have a pair of Nike hyperize for basketball and are really light and comfortable..

flywire looks damn nice on hyperdunks and hyperize

These are awesome....

e8665_nike-hyperize-2.jpg


316dc_decade9.jpg


These look like Federer Vapors :)

0d0c1_Nike-Hyperize-Weiss-Gold-02.jpg
 

DrpShot!

Semi-Pro
I dont see anything wrong with the flywire, I've gone through 10s of pairs of flywire vapors (most bought at the outlet for less than $70) and in every single case I wore a hole through the tread under the toebox waaaay before it looked like any of the flywire upper was going to break down. some shoes i tossed out look practically brand new up top. Its urable and lightweight so i don't see any problem with flywire. The problem with vapors is the tread, it sucks.
 

se0what

Rookie
Final Verdict:
Yes it works, but not on the vapors...
in track, basketball, and some other sports the flywire does shows that is useful
 

slamshock

Rookie
It's sort of like the new wilson racquets. Just a new paint job. Flywire doesn't really effect the performance on a tennis shoe. It's just another "technology" nike can add to the description of the shoe to make it sound appealing.
 
My experience is with flywire on a Nike running shoe and also the Vapor 6.

The answer is it depends on what you are comparing it to.

On the running shoe, they put flywire on the midfoot, so it's sort of like saddle cinching. It's more supportive than the mesh they use, so it does lock in the running shoe more than say a piece of leather or synthetic leather that they typically use.

On the Vapor 6, the plastic is so hard and stiff, I suspect that most of the support is with that material rather than the flywire. I'm sure there are tests out there that can test how much material stretches under load, and we can find out definitively, but that info probably isn't published, and if it was, it would change everytime (ie because the upper material changes, so they would have to publish a score with material by itself, and then material with flywire in it.)

The Vapor 7, and I haven't played with it, but just felt it in the store, seems to be more stretchy material. If you pull on a section without flywire, it seems to stretch more than a section with flywire, so again, I think it depends.

The Vapor 6 really sucked for me, so it's like stringing some flywire on a piece of metal sheeting...I don't think the flywire is going to prevent any stretch on the metal sheeting, but it would if the substrate was a piece of lycra.

my 2 cents!
 

mtommer

Hall of Fame
It's sort of like the new wilson racquets. Just a new paint job. Flywire doesn't really effect the performance on a tennis shoe. It's just another "technology" nike can add to the description of the shoe to make it sound appealing.

Just wait until next year or the year after when the Vapors get Lunarlite+ and the price jumps up by $5 as a result.
 
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