Typically, making a lightweight shoe means sacrificing stability or cushioning. Footwear can quickly get pushed to the point where it starts to break down. Since Nike’s mission is creating innovation for athletes, the obsession has led to a relentless search for new solutions to old problems. The ultimate running footwear should have everything—cushioning, stability and lightweight performance. Lunarlite foam made this goal a reality. It took nearly four years to get all three, but you could say Lunarlite foam was 36 years in the making.

It started back in 1971 with a quote from Geoff Hollister, one of Nike’s earliest employees. He strapped on the first prototypes of Bill Bowerman’s iconic Waffle sole and said, “It was like running on pillows.” Nike designer Kevin Hoffer read the quote in 2004, kicking off his search for cushioning that would recreate that sensation, which would be that revolutionary. With the quote guiding him, he thought about the Waffle outsole’s earliest incarnation in the Moon Shoe at the 1972 marathon trials. From there, Kevin turned to the actual lunar landing and soon was downloading images of astronauts bouncing around the moon as if on marshmallows. Then, he knew exactly what he wanted the cushioning to feel like.

Initially, Nike’s Lunarlite foam was expensive and nearly impossible to manufacture. The material was hard to stabilize so it Please Login or Register to read the rest of this content.