As I stir black beans into a veg-filled frying pan, I realise my soon-to-be dinner is only the second hottest thing in the room. A low buzzing sound emanates from the enormous space boots electrically heating my feet. Simultaneously, the shoes start to inflate to give my lower extremities a massage of sorts.
I’m wearing the Nike x Hyperice hyperboot, sported by World Cup stars such as Virgil van Dijk as a way to “optimise” their warm-up and recovery routines. However, while they might don theirs at state-of-the-art training facilities between games, I’ve popped mine on post-gym while whipping up some dinner.
The boots contain a network of dual-air Normatec bladders embedded with warming elements, designed to “drive heat deep into the muscle and tissue in the feet and ankles”. They can squeeze your feet with up to 210mmHg of pressure and heat up to 52 degrees.
In more relatable terms: I found they can squeeze your feet incredibly tight and make them incredibly hot.
They also cost £699.99. As a price tag for any pair of shoes, I think “wild” is a fair label. But in return, they purport to leave your feet and ankles feeling more mobile, “loose and light”.
Do they deliver? For that price, I sincerely hoped so. Here’s what I found when putting them to the test.
Read more: I played football in Harry Kane’s World Cup boots for two weeks – here’s what happened
Nike x Hyperice hyperboot
Rating: 3/5
Sizes: Small (UK5.5-7), medium (UK 7.5-9), large (UK 9.5-11), extra large (UK 11.5-13), extra extra large (UK 13.5-15)
Weight: 1.6kg
Features: Three levels of compression using and three levels of heat
Why we love it
- Help feet feel lighter
- Slight improvement in ankle mobility after wearing
Take note
- Expensive
- Conspicuous
What does the Nike x Hyperice hyperboot do?
You might have seen athletes wearing Normatec boots – the large black trousers that inflate to provide a massage for your calf and thigh muscles. For the hyperboot, Hyperice took this technology and whacked it in a shoe.
“The concept behind the hyperboot was really to reimagine what footwear could be,” says Hyperice founder Anthony Katz.
“We took the dynamic air compression from the Normatec and combined that with the hyperheat technology from the Venom [the brand’s heat and massage wrap for the back].
“When we combined those technologies, using the air compression to drive the heat deeper into the body, we found a force multiplier effect. We saw better mobility in the joint and a deeper penetration of heat into the tissue.”
This, he says, garnered impressive feedback from elite athletes, who reported their legs feeling lighter after wearing the boot. But would the shoe have the same impact on me?
My experience with the Nike x Hyperice hyperboot
I exercise a lot – as a fitness journalist, that’s to be expected. With this extra exercise comes the need to look after my body and give my recovery routine a little extra attention.
If a shoe can truly leave your feet and ankles feeling looser, lighter and more limber, I’m all ears. There are few field sports that don’t rely on a powerful push-off, after all. Whether you’re hitting the tennis court or donning your football boots, your feet are the foundation of a solid performance.
Intrigued, I slipped into the Hyperboot and switched it on. Immediately, both shoes started emitting a low buzzing sound.
Next came the inflation. Both shoes began to expand and I could feel my feet being compressed. After a few seconds, the air bladders emptied with a light hissing sound, then the sequence restarted.
During this process, the heat kicked in. And it was some serious heat. I’ve never been inside an air fryer, but I believe my feet have a fairly good idea what it’s like after this experience.
There are three levels of compression and three levels of heat available, controlled via a Bluetooth link to the Hyperice app or – my go-to option – the buttons on the outside of either shoe, pictured below.
All three levels of compression felt comfortable. Enjoyable, even. However, I bailed and slipped out of the shoe on level three of the heat settings, such was the intensity of the temperature spike.
Does the Nike x Hyperice hyperboot work?
Hyperice claims that weaving Normatec systems into a shoe allows athletes to ”use that technology wherever they go”. The first thing I did to test this was wear them while doing odd jobs around the house – tidying up and cooking dinner.
They are a tad clunky, but I was able to function largely unencumbered while the boots subjected my feet to a schvitz.
Next, I wore them to my corner shop. This is also possible, although my inhibitions got the better of me and I switched them off before entering to stop the slightly disconcerting buzzing sound.
However, the Back to the Future-esque design was (perhaps predictably) still a guaranteed eyeball magnet. Even the shopkeeper had something to say about my avant-garde footwear.
The verdict: you can technically wear them pretty much anywhere, but whether you should is another matter. You also shouldn’t do so without expecting to turn plenty of heads.
This takes us to the major question: did I feel any better after wearing them?
As a fitness coach, I tend to reject expensive fitness fads in favour of tried and trusted basics such as moving more, eating a few extra vegetables and nabbing 40 winks every once in a while. So I was almost disappointed to find these shoes did leave me feeling a little lighter on my feet.
For me, were these improvements worth 700 quid? No. But I did feel a bit better.
Whether they delivered a genuine improvement, the placebo effect was in full force or I simply wasn’t wearing chunky boots that heated my feet to 50 degrees anymore, it was hard to tell. So I decided to do something a bit more objective.
I tested my ankle mobility – or dorsiflexion, where the foot moves upward, to be specific – before and after, seeing how far I could stand from a wall while still being able to touch my knee to the wall with my foot flat on the floor.
After using the boots for a few minutes, my score improved by one-and-a-half centimetres. This truly was a game of inches, if that, but I imagine top-level athletes are after any competitive advantage they can get.
Buy now £699.99, Hyperice.com
Is the Nike x Hyperice hyperboot worth it?
There is a very simple question you can ask yourself before considering the Nike x Hyperice hyperboot: are you an elite athlete? If the answer is no, this is not the product for you.
The £699.99 price tag already puts it out of reach of most exercise enthusiasts – myself included, in normal circumstances, however I was sent this pair to test. Even if they do help your feet feel a bit springier, a sufficient return on investment simply isn’t there for most people.
As I mentioned above, if you want to improve your health and fitness, there are much cheaper and easier things you can do to deliver greater benefits. Go for a walk, eat an apple, enjoy a good night’s sleep and see how you feel.
However, this is a performance-based product, and elite athletes are in the business of performance. Any fractional improvement in how they feel and function could be the difference between winning and losing, and so it is worth capitalising on. This, I can understand and appreciate.
For this demographic, the Nike x Hyperice Hyperboot could have value. For the rest of us, a sleep, a slap-up meal and a relaxed walk should remain the recovery protocols of choice.
How I tested the Nike x Hyperice hyperboot
I wore the Nike x Hyperice hyperboot for a week, usually after my morning gym sessions or in the evenings when I was milling about the house. In this time, I tried all of the heat and pressure settings available. I was looking for:
Why you can trust IndyBest reviews
Harry Bullmore is The Independent’s senior fitness writer and a qualified fitness coach. This means he splits his time between the gym, various sports fields and his work desk, providing plenty of opportunities to test the latest and greatest products in the health and fitness space.
Harry has been training for more than a decade and testing products for much of that time, reviewing everything from ultramarathon kit to massage guns, so he knows when something is worth investing in and when it’s just a passing fitness fad that is best ignored.
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