Nike responded to rumors that the Olympics might ban its new shoes: As long as customers like it, it doesn’t matter.

About a month ago, Nike released the Vaporfly sports shoe with many improvements in materials, helping users to run faster. It has even been reported that because of these improvements, Vaporfly could be banned at the Olympics to ensure fairness for all athletes participating (readers can read more at the article. write this ).

Recently, Nike’s head of design, John Hoke, had frankly shared that the company’s products could be banned at professional competitions. He said: “ For Nike, constant change is an essential part of the company. When launching a product, we always put our customers first, and pay attention to their opinions to correct what is still defective. We will constantly innovate to help sports grow. In short: We don’t care if our product is banned at sports events or not . ”

Nike’s design team asserted that as long as the customer is satisfied with the product, it can be banned at sports events or not.

Although the fate of Vaporfly at the Olympics is still a hidden one, the Viperfly brothers were recently banned from the World Athletics organization completely. Viperfly is a shoe designed by Nike for 100 meters short running, and is also a product that has been upgraded to fit the athletic competition at the Summer Olympics.

According to the New York Times, athletic shoes must not have soles thicker than 40mm using only one material. Meanwhile, and Vaporfly and Viperfly are designed to combine foam and carbon fiber to help users recover faster during running.

Carbon fiber technology combined with foam foam in the shoe sole will help runners maintain better fitness.

However, Nike does not seem to care much about that, because most of Viperfly’s current customers still use this shoe in their daily physical activities. They even used Viperfly to participate in small, amateur tournaments without encountering any objection. In addition, Nike will also release even more terrible upgraded versions, known as Next%, to serve athletes participating in the upcoming Olympics.

Specifically, this upgrade will include Nike Air Zoom Alphafly Next% for professional athletes and Nike Pegasus Turbo Next% for ordinary runners. The two new models will use a carbon fiber sole in combination with two airbags and energy-generating foam sponge, making it easier for users to maintain and adjust their fitness.

Nike doesn’t care if its shoes are banned in professional sports, as long as users like and use them.

Not just athletics, but even basketball has benefited greatly from Nike’s new shoe technology. John Hoke said: “ We believe that the combination of carbon fiber and Zoom airbags will bring tremendous benefits to basketball players. They help improve the ability to grip the ground, reduce fatigue even after the game has entered the fourth half, thereby helping players avoid exhaustion. This is the first step on the path to help basketball become more developed. “Of course we won’t be able to influence the rules, but at least the game speed will be improved, faster and more attractive .”

According to a recent Nike report, only 1% of the fitness recovered from their shoes can greatly affect the outcome of the game. They even suggest that with these improvements, the late basketball legend Kobe Bryant could score an extra 336 points in his career.

Not only athletics, Nike is also aiming to improve the quality of matches in other sports such as basketball.

If Nike’s studies are accurate, this “Next” technology will be one of the important cards to improve basketball in particular and sports in general. With athletics, the combination of carbon fiber and foam will help users run faster, “buffalo” more and directly affect the final result. But basketball (or the subjects need to move as much as football) is different. Speeding up only partially affects the game, but the important thing is that it will help the game run faster, more exciting and more attractive.

According to Fastcompany