Nike Zoom Superfly Elite's Spike Plate May Help Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Beat Her Personal Best
To shave one-tenth of a second off her best 100-meter race time.
World-class sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce has a personal goal in mind — to shave one-tenth of a second off her best 100-meter race time. Known primarily as a stride-rate runner, Fraser-Pryce excels off the starting blocks leaving her to fight for positioning throughout. With the help of cross-functional Nike team, consisting of designers, engineers, scientists and runners, a plan is now in place to help her get there. With the birth of the Nike Zoom Superfly Elite, the research team drew cues from ocean organisms, which structurally proved light, yet firm, and administered computational design and 3D prototyping — all leading to the creation of a spike plate. Used in favor of fixed pins, the foot remains closer to the track, and, thus, faster off it. Will Fraser-Pryce ever beat her personal record? That remains to be seen, however, these technological advances will bring her one step closer.
