Nike Pegasus 42 Review By Real Foot Doctor

Hey, what's up, Zach here. And today I have got the all new Nike Pegasus 42 and a lot of updates on this one. Some interesting things actually borrowed from some other sports in this shoe even. I do think they work a little bit better in a running shoe than they do a court shoe and some nice implementation. The number one thing you will notice in the uppers, if you look at it on the microscope, you look at it and you think like, this is not super thin TPU strands. It looks more like just standard textile weaving that you would see kind of in more of a basic shoe. Thing is though, the uppers are incredibly light. There is also one, two layers in the uppers. That second layer is actually like a padded cage, almost of mesh, but it's super flowing and just super movable and malleable. And looking at it on the breathability test, these things just push fog out like crazy. Typically on the breathability test, you'll see if a shoe is really bad, you'll see it come back up out the ankle collar, right like out the opening here. If you watch a lot of my breathability tests, you'll notice I put shoe paper in the ankle collar to try to stop fog from coming back up. It still does. But when a shoe does not breathe very well, typically the first place the fog goes is back around the ankle collar because that's the biggest opening. And these ones is just was shooting right out the forefoot really easily. These materials are a lot lighter, just more malleable, more premium than they would appear. It's kind of like a weird mind game here. Now, if you go into the tongue, the tongue has high gussets on both sides. Why the other models don't have that, I don't know. And then the tongue has got two layers of really thick padding. And then that just kind of goes, you know, right into the forefoot of the shoe where it's sewn in pretty high. All in all, it's just a really comfortable experience. I would say in the upper part of the forefoot, we'll talk about other comfort experiences in this later in the video, because it's not all great. You go up in the lace line, integrated lace eyelets, love those for lockdown. And then you do get a runner's knot. I would suggest using it, even if you don't care about heel slippage. And we'll talk about this more in the fit section, but these are weird. So heel slippage on these is moderate with no runner's knot. With the runner's knot, it is just mild. But the other thing the runner's knot allows you to do is to just, you don't have to tie it as tight. I mean, I guess it's not that complicated. You don't have to tie it as tight, but the runner's knot does not make it uncomfortable. And it's a lot of running shoes, especially in a little bit more low profile running shoes or just casual shoes, court shoes, whatever, anything a little more low profile and light in the uppers, you start doing a runner's knot. And because that back loop that comes through comes up a little bit higher on the tongue, it can start to squish your anterior ankle or the front part of your ankle, and it can squish the nerves there. On these ones, the tongue is nice and padded right there, no problem. And so it really does help with a lot of comfort issues in the forefoot of the shoe. Like I said, we'll get to a little bit later in the video. Now, as you go into the rear foot, you get enough padding around the back and it is nice material in the back here. This is some of Nike's nicer fabrics here in the rear foot. I've seen a few of their shoes now have this, just super comfortable in the back. And like I said, lockdown, it's just okay, right? It could be a little bit better, could have a little more material in there, but for a lightweight, you know, trainer, that's pretty good. All right, beginning in the midsole teardown. Honestly, the Pegasus 42 looks like the Pegasus Premium cloaked, except it doesn't have Zoom X. And honestly, I think that's a good thing. I like the midsole in this so much more than the Pegasus Premium. I know it looks wild and cool, but it just breaks down. On this one, because you got the top-loaded parabolic zoom, which the Pegasus Premium had, it had the parabolic zoom, then it wasn't top-loaded, it was sandwiched. This one's top-loaded. You also had parabolic zoom in the Zoom Zero, even before that, that's court shoe. That also dove into the shoe kind of like a shank does. This is top-loaded. And to me, it just protects the shoe more. There is no shank in this thing. And as you can see here, yeah, you can just kind of bend it. And torsional, not a lot here. It's not meant to be a super high torsion shoe, but the Zoom definitely does a good job of protecting the ReactX, which is just EVA and TP. It's a very, very lightweight. I know there's copolymers too in there, but it is just a very, very lightweight foam. It's very, very soft. When you touch it on the inside, when you press it, it feels just like regular ReactX. On the outside, it feels much more tensile, much more bouncy, much more resilient. I think it's just the coating they put on the carrier, you know, on the outside of it to make it a carrier foam. So I think kind of that's where you're getting that from. But you look at this, and all the numbers kind of bear this out. Look at this thing on the tensiometer, only takes 37 newtons to bend it to 45 degrees. So, I mean, it just does not take much. In terms of shock absorption, takes 54 newtons to compress it at first, which to me is a nice sweet spot. And it goes down to 34 after three cycles. And I don't think the Zoom Air, this is obviously, this is popped, but when I did it, it's not popped. Obviously, the Zoom Air is, I don't think is the thing that is compressing it. It's the ReactX underneath it. When you keep going down, that ReactX is just becoming more and more compliant after those three cycles. So you kind of see where we're going with this. On the balance height test, that was even more interesting. I only got 26 centimeters in the rear foot, and that's because the rear foot is hollowed out. And so you get, in the forefoot, it was 40 centimeters. And it's because you got more ground reactive force, just more stuff contacting the ground. So, boop, ball bearing goes up. So to me, even though it doesn't look as wild as the Pegasus Premium, even though it doesn't have Zoom X, top-loaded parabolic zoom right under the strobel, to me is just a much more resilient shoe, much more lively feeling shoe. And I think it's gonna be more durable for more people over the life of the shoe. So to me, this is the better setup. Also contained zoom. You know, right, because the zoom is contained within the carrier foam versus something Pegasus Premium where it's not. And so that makes it just even more kind of a floppy mess shoe once you break it down and down and down. Whereas this one, it's just gonna stay, like I said, livelier for longer, give it more durability and more resiliency out of the midsole, which overall does feel very good. It feels springy, but it also feels nice and shock-absorbing underfoot. Feels kind of pillowy, but also like it's, you know, like it's not just bottoming out to kingdom come. So yeah, honestly, besides not having a shank, I like it. All right, and getting into the outsole checklist real quick, it is just peripheral rubber here, just linear peripheral rubber. And then just a lug pattern here, just the landing pad and the forefoot. Nothing here in the midfoot or rear foot. Like I said, it's all hollowed out. I mean, you obviously can rear foot strike because it is hollowed out and you've got enough rubber there. But honestly, it kind of, with the lugs and then the peripheral pattern, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. It is kind of an easy transition shoe, to be honest. And then you've got the takeoff pad here. And I do like the serrations here under the big toe here on the medial side. It does give a little bit of grip, right? And you may be on a slicker surface, then you've got the lugs obviously for everything else. So honestly, yeah, I mean, it's basic and it's hollowed out for some weight reduction, but overall it's decent. All right, but getting into the fit and usability of the Pegasus 42, this is where I kind of had some issues. Now, first of all, you look in the rear foot, it does have 8.9 centimeters of rear foot width. And that is where all the stability of this shoe I feel comes from. It does not feel clunky at all, but it feels way more stable on foot than you would think it does. I'll get to that when I talk about ankle spraining and instability, but a nice and wide rear foot. And I think that is just doing the lion's share of the work in the shoe as well as the top loaded zoom in keeping the shoe any bit stable. I know number two, you also get 5.3 centimeters of toe box height. That is pretty darn good. And you feel it in there. There's a ton of room vertically in there. So those are the good things. In terms of length, this comes in pretty true, 28.9, maybe just a hair long, 28.9 centimeters in length. And then in terms of width, you do get 9.9 centimeters of metatarsal width, which is actually pretty generous, but then it goes to 9.8 in the toe box. So you do lose a millimeter. It's not much, but millimeters count. And then an in flare of only 37 degrees. So it's really not terrible. If you want to compare the shape of the Pegasus to more of like an anatomic shoe, you're going to see this line, these two up here, and it is a little bit longer, you know, and then the more anatomic, you know, or foot shaped toe box just gives a little more room here. It's interesting in the metatarsals, you get a little more of in the Pegasus and this gets a little bit longer, but you can see just a little more room here. So it's, you know, it's different enough, but you'd be interested in that. So the one thing is though, is I had cramping in these and it went away. You know, I was able to break it in and using the runner's knot made it so much better because I wasn't cranking on the mid foot, but you know, and I know you do lose a millimeter from the metatarsals of the toe box. That's right where I felt it on the lateral side of my left foot. Now that is my bigger foot. That is my wider foot. But for a shoe with this compliant of materials, a shoe that actually has a little bit more length to it, you know, a millimeter or two more length to it, like still having a little bit of the cramping that was, it was just a little bit disappointing to be honest, but I guess I got through it. It was fine. So I'd say narrow, medium, just go true to size. A 2E, I think if you're wearing them casually and you don't want to like crank the laces down, that's fine. You can just go true to size. You can also go up one half size and just get a little more room in there and just feel a bit better. Especially if you have a little more bulk on the outside of your foot, a 4E would be definitely going up one half size. Like I said, it does break in. And if you use the runner's knot, it's fine. It's just, you kind of have to give it a little bit of a slog just because of the little bit more of a taper of the metatarsals into the toes. It interesting, it is interesting though, seeing like how it's not much difference between the barefoot and the regular shoe. I got a video on this coming out, but it's millimeters, right? It's interesting. Okay, getting into who these are good for and who these are not. Terms of a flat, neutral and high, I think they're fine. In terms of ankle sprainers, I would say honestly for what their intended use is, they actually are okay because of the wide rear foot. I actually had a hard time rolling these. Now, I think once the shoe starts breaking down, as this thing gets longer in the tooth, it's going to start getting worse and worse and orthotic and it's going to help too, just allowing it to break down more evenly in the footbed. So try that. In terms of plantar fasciitis, it does have a one centimeter heel to toe drop. I think if you put an orthotic in there, it's wide enough in the rear foot. I think it's fine. I think it definitely have an orthotic in there. Achilles tendonitis too, throw an orthotic in there. It'll fit an orthotic. It'll fit a more low profile orthotic. You know, you're going to need something, obviously, I don't, I hate half orthotics. I'm just showing you the shell because there's not going to be a ton of room back here. So make sure it is low profile, not super bulky, but yeah, it'd be fine. In terms of forefoot pain, yeah, I don't, they're not super cramped. I would just, I kind of give them like kind of the neutral check. Like they're fine. They're not the first thing I would put in there. There's not a ton of support in the forefoot in terms of a shank. There's not gonna be a lot of offloading. So it's just okay. It's not great. It's not a blue check, put it that way. In terms of arch pain, nope. I mean, you can put an orthotic in there and it'll be a lot better. I just, I don't know if torsionally, it's going to be good enough for that posterior tibial tendon, that big tendon to hold your arch up. Big toe arthritis, not on their own with a Morton's extension orthotic. It'll be okay. There's just better out there. I'd be honest. Knee and back pain, they are a little soft. Now they're better, right? So you're not gonna sink as much. So you got the tensile air, but you definitely want an orthotic in there. I would say more of an orange orthotic. I'd say more of a caution on that. That's gonna be dealer's choice. It's not gonna be the best shoe out there, but I think with an orthotic, it'll just be okay. So are they gonna wreck your foot? No, not really. Honestly, they're better than I thought they were gonna be. Are they gonna cramp your foot a little bit? Maybe for some people. All in all though, the Pegasus is always gonna be the Pegasus, right? It's always gonna be a little bit more of a casual trainer, not a high torsion shoe. So for what it is, if you like previous Pegasus shoes, you're probably gonna like this one a little bit more. If you hated previous Pegasus shoes, you might like it a little bit more. If you were on the fence, this one might be the one to get you in the line. I would say in terms of runners, in terms of gait strikes, more proximal midfoot strikers, that's where I felt most comfortable with these. That's where the drop felt the best on them. Midfoot and forefoot was okay. It was fine. It was, I feel like I could bottom a little bit more in the forefoot because of the ReactX, it is so soft. So I'd say a more midfoot striker. It's gonna do well. A rear foot striker, you'll do fine with too. It's just the torsion, right? That lack of torsion, you'll need an orthotic if you are a rear foot striker, just for the runners out there. So let me hear your thoughts in the comments down below. Do you wanna see what I'm talking about with the Pegasus Premium? And you wanna see what I'm talking about with the Vimero Premium, which is a totally different product, different in every way. That's a shoe that I do believe actually deserves the word premium. If you wanna check either of those shoes out, I'll leave those video linked right here. I'll see you in the next one.