Words: Davis Jones
Images: Dan Vernon and Sofieke van Bilsen
At its core, Breaking4 — Faith Kipyegon’s project with Nike to run a sub-4-minute mile — has always been about heart and belief. That’s what’s powering Kipyegon, alongside cutting-edge Nike performance products. But don’t think for a second — certainly not the 7.65 seconds Kipyegon needs to shave off her world record mile time — that Nike didn’t consider hundreds of other factors to get Kipyegon across the line in a time starting with a “3.”
To complement and amplify Kipyegon’s bespoke products — including a one-of-one Nike Fly Suit, a revolutionary FlyWeb Bra and a first of its kind Victory 2 Elite FK spike — the Breaking4 team dialed in the attempt’s aerodynamics and efficiency. Preparation and location. Weather and, well, vibes. Each of these points contain smaller details that the Nike Innovation team scrutinized from every angle, all in an effort to nail a perfectly orchestrated approach with Kipyegon.
Dive into 10 of the ways Nike offered its support.
“I get motivated by thinking of what I can achieve, the boundaries I can break — and how I can empower the next generation,” says Kipyegon, training here in Kenya. “You can’t limit yourself.”
1. Let Faith Be Faith
Faith Kipyegon isn’t toeing the line for Breaking4 as merely an elite runner. She’s built a case as one of the greatest middle-distance runners of all time. She’s the current world record holder across three distances. Her three gold medals in the 1,500 meter span almost a decade and counting. There are intangibles too. She has her training preferences perfectly tuned. She understands her own athleticism like a driver knows its race car. Nike’s role in Breaking4 wasn’t to reset Kipyegon, but to add to the capabilities of an already historic runner.
“The power of the athlete is what drove this entire project. It’s really about Faith, her talent and her fortitude, which was in place long before we partnered with her.”
Brett Kirby, Principal Researcher, NSRL
2. Instill Confidence
In the beginning of Breaking4 strategizing, the Innovation team debated the trajectory of Kipyegon’s 1-mile racecourse. What if the path was a straightaway, like in a road race? Remove all the curves, and ensure a pacing formation could be linear instead of skewed for left turns? When the team shared this with Kipyegon, she was vocal: She’d feel more confident and comfortable running on a track, where she’d built her entire professional career on reading the eight lanes, tuning her focus to the inside rail.
“Whether it was a feature of the racecourse, her pacer formation or a detail in her apparel, building her confidence meant everything to us,” says Amy Jones Vaterlaus, VP Innovation, NSRL. “We listened to her intently. We watched for cues she’d give off, maybe without even realizing it. Ensuring she can move freely, without distraction, is just one more way we can help build her confidence.”
3. Choose the Right Time of Year
Kipyegon’s professional schedule weighed heavily in choosing the month for the attempt. If she’s to peak in mid September during the World Championships in Tokyo, she has to give her body the ideal window of time for training periodization, or the scaling of her preparation to leave her feeling ready to go. The optimal timing: late June.
4. Game the Weather
Weather conditions on race day can be the dealbreaker for achieving fast times. Heat, wind and rain can all put an additional load on an athlete. Too much heat is a thermal burden that leads to overexertion. Too much wind — and around a track, there will always be a headwind at a certain point — creates drag forces that slow runners down. Weather doesn’t come on demand, of course, and the Nike team knew the ideal geographic location of the attempt would need to cross off as many criteria as possible: zero rain, less than 12 km/hr wind, moderate temperatures.
The Nike Innovation team’s ideal conditions for Breaking4.
4. Minimize the Jet Lag
Anyone who flies internationally can attest to the physical and mental toil from zooming through time zones, leaving you sluggish and fatigued. Your body has a circadian rhythm, an internal clock, that prompts you to wake up and go to sleep. Somewhere in the middle of that time period is the bioenergetic sweet spot, when you feel most energized, or, in Kipyegon’s case, most physically capable. That made finding the right area of the world for the attempt paramount for Breaking4. Minimizing a shift in time zones would help keep Kipyegon’s body clock from feeling out of whack.
“We knew she couldn’t arrive feeling drained,” says Jones Vaterlaus. “Paris having a time zone of one-hour difference from Kenya was a much easier decision than, say, somewhere in the United States, where Faith’s jet lag would be significant.”
Choosing the ideal location for Breaking4 meant dialing in a time zone close to Kipyegon’s home base in Kenya.
6. Dial in the Track
A track isn’t an inert surface. It possesses levels of responsiveness that can leave a runner’s legs feeling fresh, or it can be firm and dampening, diffusing the precious energy that a runner puts into the ground. Texture matters too. Its grittiness can be well-suited, or not at all, for traction as a runner digs into the turns. For Breaking4, the Nike Innovation team ordered swatches of 10 track surfaces from around the world, sampling from different stadiums, to find the composition ideal for Kipyegon’s performance, which included considerations like Kipyegon’s bodyweight and stride rate.
“Our footwear solution for Faith was built on studying the interaction between Faith’s foot and the ground,” says Carrie Dimoff, Sr. Manager for Innovation Footwear. “Our formula had to consider the track surface she’ll be running on, and the properties the surface does or doesn’t carry. While we were still landing on the location, we were able to test our spike prototypes on the exact track surface so we could evaluate energy return and traction effectiveness.”
5. Find the Ideal Stadium
The team knew Kipyegon wanted to compete on a track to stay true to the historical spirit of her sport. That left Nike’s Innovation team with the crucial decision of which track. A track where a runner has preexisting history can give them the comfort they need to lay down a fast time. One of these options was in Monaco, where Kipyegon broke the mile world record in 2023. The team also considered Eugene, Ore. In 2023, Kipyegon stepped onto Hayward Field and cruised to a Diamond League title in the 1,500 meter while setting a Prefontaine Classic meet record. In the end, the team decided on Stade Charléty in Paris, where Kipyegon ran her world record times in the 1,500 meter and the 5,000 meter.
“I absolutely think there’s special energy at this track,” says Kipyegon. “I have beautiful memories in Paris, breaking the 5,000 world record, breaking the 1,500 world record there. And now we are going for this special one, and I think the track will bring good results.”
The Nike Victory Elite FK was built to Faith Kipyegon’s exact specifications.
“Our footwear solution for Faith was built on studying the interaction between Faith’s foot and the ground. Our formula had to consider the track surface she’ll be running on, and the properties the surface does or doesn’t carry.”
Carrie Dimoff, Sr. Manager for Innovation Footwear
8. Perfect a Pacer Strategy
Nike’s previous moonshot attempt, Breaking2, was a grand lesson in pacing strategy and aerodynamics. Nailing the drafting formation for Breaking4 would be one of the key elements to give Kipyegon the best chance to go sub-4. To help reduce the drag on Kipyegon, the Nike team considered countless pacer configurations, experimenting with the number of runners, the balance between men and women, and the geometry of the formation itself. They also thought about whether to introduce new pacers during the attempt. The upshot? Disruptions can make the smoothness of drafting go haywire; the choice to switch in runners midway through a lap can create micro-undulations in the air frequency, disturbing Kipyegon’s speed.
“Creating a low air pressure pocket for Faith requires total synchrony among all the pacers in the formation,” says Kirby. “Experimenting with different formations is a lot like rearranging the pieces on a chess board. The timing needs to be right, the group positioning needs to be right, and the relationship between any single pacer to Faith needs to be right.”
9. Pump up the Color
Color choice has the psychological power to motivate an athlete to reach her highest potential. Though the Nike Innovation team used little color in the Nike Fly Suit — one reason was that doing so would affect the aerodynamic properties of the material — the suit’s Nike Aeronodes are in a color-shifting purple, a nod to Kipyegon’s favorite color. The stadium itself will be awash in purple, covering the stands, the jumbotron and the signage around the track. At literally every turn, Kipyegon will see the color that motivates her. Beyond the day-of race environment, Kipyegon’s Nike Running collection is also rooted in purple. The collection, which includes footwear and apparel, is paired with accents of red and green, representing her Kenyan heritage. And on Kipyegon’s Victory Elite FK spike, gold accents denote her gold medal victories.
The Faith Kipyeon collection is awash in her favorite color, purple, which represents the energy, passion and spirit she brings to every race. Red and green accents mirror the Kenyan flag.
10. Give Her All the Nike Advantages
The Innovation team gave Kipyegon the full gamut of Nike tools during her training leading up to the attempt. Some are at the modern edge of athlete recovery methodology, such as Nike’s Hyperice boots, a heat and air-compression massage tool. Others, such as Nike’s new Vomero Premium shoe, were ideal for recovery runs or long mileage. Then there were the innovations that were expedited so Kipyegon could benefit from their advantages before and during the race. Nike FlyWeb, a new 3D-printed material used for Kipyegon’s sports bra, was moved forward in its production cycle for Kipyegon to train in it. “This attempt is the first time Nike FlyWeb will be tested on the world stage, and in a one-of-one bra,” says Janett Nichol, VP of Apparel Innovation. “Faith gave us a rare opportunity: She would not only wear it, she’d help us evolve it.”
“This attempt is the first time Nike FlyWeb will be tested on the world stage, and in a one-of-one bra. Faith gave us a rare opportunity: She would not only wear it, she’d help us evolve it.”
Janett Nichol, VP of Apparel Innovation
When she takes to the starting line, in every way, Kipyegon will represent Nike’s latest and greatest.