An Olympic Gold Medalist Calls This Underrated Nike Sneaker His “Most Used Shoe”

Cooper Teare is fast. Really fast. So is his teammate and training partner Cole Hocker. Both middle-distance runners — who train in Blacksburg, VA, with SOVA — hold multiple NCAA titles from their times at the University of Oregon.

Oh, and by the way: Hocker, who won the US track and field trials, just set a new Olympic Record in the 1500 meters with a time of 3:27.65, taking home a gold medal in the process.

But if you thought elite runners like Teare and Hocker were racking up the miles in super shoes like the Vaporfly, think again. Both athletes, who run for Nike, said they do most of their training in one of the company’s everyday trainers, regardless of the workout.

And it’s not the well-known Pegasus model, either. In fact, it might be Nike’s most underrated sneaker.

Versatility in stability

In a training video, posted to the SOVA YouTube channel, both runners hyped up the Nike Structure 25, which Teare called a “workhorse of a shoe.”

“This is by far my most used shoe,” Hocker exclusively told Gear Patrol in an interview before the Olympics. “Long runs, easy runs, workouts.”

“Besides speed work, the Structure is in the rotation for everything,” Teare added.

Both Teare and Hocker put anywhere between 200 and 400 miles on their Structures before they swap them out for fresh pairs, they said.

Nike

Nike Structure 25

• Starts at $64
  $140 (54% off)

Structure means speed

Nike bills the Structure as a stability shoe, high in support and cushioning but low on the responsiveness factor. That doesn’t mean slow.

Nike

“With better structure comes higher efficiency and faster times,” Teare said. “I tend to pronate when I run and the build of the Structure keeps that in check. It helps from having my ankles diving inwards.”

“The [Pegasus] feels lighter and faster but doesn’t give me the same support at the Structure,” said Hocker, who likes the shoe’s high heel-to-toe drop (which measures 10mm).

Nike

“I have dealt with Achilles issues in the past. This feels like the right heel drop for me with a more secure [fit] than the Pegasus,” he added.

What about super shoes?

Teare and Hocker admit that their training falls outside the norm of their peers, who favor “a lot of long, hard intervals and big sessions in the newest shoes,” Teare said.

“With carbon plates popping up more and more often in racing and even training shoes, it’s easy to get starry-eyed at all the bells and whistles that are thrown at you. I think people are starting to get caught up in all of these innovations and forget about the basics of running,” he added.

In Virginia, Teare and Hocker train under the tutelage of Ben Thomas, head coach of track and field at Virginia Tech (formerly the University of Oregon).

Though hard sessions come with the turf, “we gauge our workouts on effort and not time as much,” Teare said. “With this, you can get away with using a shoe like the Structure instead of doing everything in super shoes.”

“People don’t wear them because everyone wants to feel fast all the time in training” Hocker went on. “I don’t think you always have to feel fast. People would benefit from using super shoes more sparingly.”

Nike

In the age of carbon-fiber plates, ultra-lightweight foam and minimal uppers that look like socks, the Structure 25 might look, feel and run like the kind of shoe Nike would design years ago. But with the proper rotation, it might be a case of having your cake and eating it, too.

“People aren’t talking about the Structure because there really isn’t much to talk about. It fits more into the category of good old-fashioned hard work,” Teare said. “This makes the times we get into super shoes a bit more meaningful.”

Nike

Nike Structure 25

• Starts at $64
  $140 (54% off)

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