Nike’s 2025 Ekiden Collection: Celebrating the Fiery Spirit of Relay Runners

Nike has been collaborating with Ekiden runners since 1990, with the 2025 collection announced earlier this week. The Ekiden series is a special line of Nike running shoes and gear, known for its unique colours and patterns. Created to honour Japan's long distance relay runners, this collection has yielded some of the most coveted pairs in the Swoosh's running lineup.

The Ekiden, first held in 1917, is a long distance relay race that spanned from the ancient Japanese capital of Kyoto to the modern day capital, Tokyo. Appropriately, "Ekiden" translates to "station to station." Every year, Nike releases a collection to honour this historic race and the athletes who compete in it. In the upcoming pack, we're seeing these running shoes get a fiery treatment.

This year’s lineup includes four road racing models: the Alphafly 3, Rival Fly 4, Vaporfly 3, and Zoom Fly 6. Crafted to enhance speed, endurance, and strength, each shoe features a fiery pattern at the toe with extra red and purple touches. According to Nike, this flame design symbolises the inner fire of all racers and the torches used during the night legs of early Ekiden races.

The flame graphic is inspired by the flame that burns within the runners of the race, as well as the torches which are used during the night legs of the race. The graphic may also seem familiar to some long-time sneakerheads. First seen on the Air Streak Spectrum Plus, a classic model from 2002 which also had Japanese inspirations, the flame motif also saw a renewal in 2018 with the Supreme x Nike Zoom Streak Spectrum Plus. Alongside the flame graphic we also see Japanese kanji characters on each shoe in the Ekiden Collection, there to motivate runners to push their limits.

The cohesive design theme carries over to the collection's lifestyle apparel, including a Nike Windrunner jacket and a stylish long sleeve tshirt.

The "Let Your Fire Run" campaign for the Ekiden Collection features athletes from Chuo, Komazawa, Tokai, and Toyo universities, revving up for Japan's premier Ekiden race in January 2025. This campaign shines a light on the grueling grind of Ekiden training, proving that true victory is all about outlasting those pesky pain hurdles.

Even though it's labelled as a 2025 collection, the Nike Running Ekiden Collection will hit stored before the end of this year. The collection will first debut in Japan on 22nd November, but a worldwide release is set for December 4th.

Follow The Sole Supplier for all the latest updates on this and other upcoming running shoes.