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Nike Free Shoes Naming Convention Explained

I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about Nike Free shoes. People were telling me how they were Nike’s response to Vibram FiveFingers shoes and the growing amount of research that is showing that extra supportive athletic shoes have done little to help prevent foot injuries (and might even be a big cause of them). Either way I was intrigued since I’ve been a fan of VFF’s I wanted to see what the “competition” was up to.

The first thing I learned about Nike Free shoes is their whole naming convention is VERY CONFUSING. Nike launched their Free line back in July of 2004 with just one shoe, the Nike Free 5.0. Now in 2009 they have what seems like over 15 some shoes.

The following are men’s shoes with the Nike Free in the product title (taken from the Nike Store website):

?Nike Free 3.0 II Running Shoe
?Nike Free 5.0 iD Running Shoe
?Nike Free 5.0 V4 Running Shoe
?Nike Free 5.0 iD V4 Running Shoe
?Nike Free Everyday+ 2 Running Shoe
?Nike Free SPARQ ’09 Training Shoe
?Nike Free SPARQ ’09 SL Training Shoe
?Nike Free SPARQ ’09 MMX Training Shoe
?Nike Free D dynamic SL TR Training Shoes

The following are women’s shoes with Nike Free in the product title:

?Nike Free 3.0 II Running Shoe
?Nike Free 5.0 iD Running Shoe
?Nike Free V4 Running Shoe
?Nike Free 5.0 iD V4 Running Shoe
?Nike Free Everyday+ Running Shoe
?Nike Free Everyday+ 2 Running Shoe
?Nike Free 7.0.3 Training Shoe
?Nike Free 7.0.IV Training Shoe
?Nike Free Mary Jane SI Shoe
?Nike Free Mary Jane 2 iD Shoe

The mixture of acronyms, decimal numbers, roman numerals, and “plus” signs makes their whole line of shoes hard to decipher (it’s like translating a foreign language). I think it’s way too much. I mean they are selling shoes not computer software! They should simplify their naming system. But I’m digressing, I’ll try to step you through what I’ve learned about Nike Free jargon.

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