NOVAK DJOKOVIC COULD only shake his head as he stood, hands on hips, breathing heavily. His opponent, Spanish wunderkind, Carlos Alcaraz, had just produced the shot of the match in their historic Australian Open final.
It was midway through a pivotal third set, with the match locked at one set all.
Seconds earlier, as another long, pulverising baseline rally began to unfold, a desperate Djokovic managed to chase down a wide ball, his next shot curling around the net post for what looked to be a certain winner. It wasn’t to be. Alcaraz stretched to his forehand side and put the ball across the net, out of Djokovic’s reach to take the point.
Alcaraz raised both arms and then put his finger to his ear to soak up the applause. Djokovic, meanwhile, was crestfallen.
Of course, Alcaraz would go on to win the match, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, 7-5, securing his seventh major tournament and becoming the youngest player in history to achieve the career grand slam. It was a victory you can chalk up to his prodigious talent – his ability to trade heavy groundstrokes with ‘The Joker’ and chase down every ball is unmatched. It was also a testament to the work the Nike Athlete had put in to be ready to meet the moment.
We can safely say Alcaraz left no stone unturned in his preparation for the match, engaging in a rigorous recovery routine to help revitalise his body after the five-hour ordeal he put it through in his titanic semi-final against Alexander Zverev less that 48 hours earlier. He would have eaten a meticulously managed menu of foods to aid recovery, optimise his energy levels and activate his muscles and his team would have carefully calibrated his sleep to ensure he was primed to perform when it mattered most.
Collectively these tools are colloquially known as ‘one-percenters’, the fragmentary, almost mystical finetuning that can make the difference between otherwise evenly matched opponents at the pointy end of elite sport.
But on this windy summer’s night in Melbourne, Alcaraz had a new tool to lean on in his pregame routine: the Nike Mind 001, billed as the world’s first neuroscience shoe. Men’s Health recently had the chance to try the shoe, and its counterpart, the Nike Mind 002. Here are our thoughts.
The look
The 001 is a stylish mule, with sleek lines that, especially in the black colourway, look to have a stylistic antecedent in The Dark Knight’s iteration of the Batmobile. The silhouettes mark the debut of the Nike Mind platform, a complex scientific, engineering and manufacturing technology more than a decade in the making. The Mind 001 mule offers easy-on, easy-off convenience and comfort, while its sister shoe, the Mind 002 sneaker anchors the foot to the footbed for increased sensation and support. This amplifies the athlete’s connection with their footwear, environment and body in a way that means the shoes are not only worn but felt.
The sleek design has quickly found favour with elite athletes, who’ve been keen early adopters. “We first started seeding the shoe to athletes last November and pretty much instantly we saw them adopting it into their pregame routine,” says Chloe Speed, vice president/general manager of Nike Training. “We saw [WNBA star] A’ja Wilson wearing them in the tunnel. We’re seeing a lot of English soccer players choosing to wear it. From a design aspect perspective, it complements what they feel is their identity, which is such an important part of that pre-game routine. If you look good, you feel good, you play good.”
The specs
It’s under the hood, or rather, the sole, that the 001 really turns heads or, more to the point, gets inside them. Twenty-two individually articulated foam nodes stimulate the athlete’s foot, activating mechanical receptors in the brain associated with focus, alertness and concentration. “What we essentially saw through the data was the areas of the sensory cortex associated with balance, with focus, with feeling grounded, were activated,” says Speed.
The 22 nodes (down from 40 in the research stage, Speed says) are bonded to a flexible, water-resistant material that allows them to act as pistons and gimbals as athletes move – imparting the feeling, and even the texture, of the surface directly beneath. This interaction heightens sensory awareness, which can help clear distractions and enhance concentration, Speed adds.
Alcaraz was seen in the 001 before matches at the AO, while his great rival, fellow Nike athlete Jannik Sinner, has worn them after matches, a practice that could potentially help an athlete emotionally deregulate.
The Mind 001 and 002 are useful for tennis players, Speed says, due to players’ heavy reliance on rituals. “This is where I love the tennis lens because so much about a player’s preparation process is rituals, it’s superstitions – that one thing I need to do to make sure I’ve got the right feeling,” she says. “The ease with which this fits into a ritual-type mechanic in a player’s pre-game routine is really exciting.”
Of course, when it comes to performance tech, elite athletes are apex predators, sitting at the top of the biomechanical food chain. Everything they do eventually trickles down to everyday athletes, who may have different, but no less aspirational goals – a Park Run PB, perhaps. As such, they too can benefit from a cutting-edge technological free kick.
“Whether you’re looking to raise the trophy on Rod Laver Arena or you’re trying to cram a workout into a very busy life, it’s so frequently the same mindset and the same kind of aspiration,” says Speed. “You actually realise there’s so much cascading of innovation, which yes, serves the elite athlete really, really well, but also serves that guy who’s managed to fit in three workouts a week and is incredibly proud of that.”
The test
Outside of idle daydreams in which I break LeBron James’ ankles with a killer crossover, or hit a searing groundstroke past Djokovic’s outstretched racquet, I will grudgingly concede that I’m an everyday athlete. As such, I have to report that the 001 and 002 are unlike any shoes I’ve pulled on before.
Some have described the sensation as walking on champagne bubbles. I would compare it, particularly in the 002, where the laces and structure of the upper put greater downward pressure on those individual foam nodes, as walking on bubble wrap. You constantly find yourself moving from the balls of your feet to the heel to seek out sensation, as the shoe soothes and stimulates your footfalls. Different surfaces create subtle but noticeable sensations, each difference registering in a way that keeps you anchored in the present moment – good for a chronic daydreamer like me.
The verdict
Nike’s press materials describe the shoe as mind altering – on the nose, yes, but after a few days in the 001s, I do feel that my headspace has been penetrated, possibly even reconfigured. I wear the 001 around the house after my weekly post 5k run, enjoying both the immersive foot massage they offer and the fact that I’m more attuned to the present moment and less likely to be yanked into a work headspace by thoughts of deadlines or client meetings, as I often am first thing in the morning.
After a few days wearing the 001s while doing dishes and preparing school lunches, I can report that as a pre-game ritual for my workday they’ve given me a distinct sense that I have an advantage – somewhere between 1 and 10 per cent – over my peers at school pick-up, who look at my feet with a mix of bemusement and envy.
More importantly, perhaps, they’ve quickly become part of my post-run routine, so much so that I find myself looking forward to chucking them on as soon as I walk through the door. Sure, these are minor wins, but for a busy suburban dad like me, they represent victories of grand slam proportions.
