Nike - ACG Ultrafly 2

I saw a photo on IG from @running_highest — Caleb Olsen and his teammates were wearing a new pair of shoes. From what I can tell, they’re the final version of the Nike Ultrafly 2! A Full Look at the Nike ACG Ultrafly 2 Trail Running Shoes – What I Think Is the Final Retail Version (Though I Have No Idea When They’ll Drop 😂) First off, the bright orange color really pops. The new upper material is lightweight and thin, combined with UV detailing, which makes the shoe much more visually appealing compared to the first Ultrafly model. The shape is still made to suit wide-footed runners, though not quite ultra wide or extra wide. The branding shift is another key change. Previously labeled under "Nike Trail", this version now falls under the "Nike ACG" umbrella. That move clearly positions this shoe as the top-tier competition model for Nike's outdoor category. Release Date — While there’s still no official launch date, based on all the news I’ve gathered, I’d estimate the earliest release to be around September 2025, and at the latest ... sometime mid-next year 🥲 Personally, I really believe it’ll drop next month. Can’t wait to wear them for real!

That’s a huge amount of time. 🥹 I really need them for this trail season.

I think they developed it based on feedback from athletes. Personally, I’ve used the Ultrafly 1 and I felt the shoes were very stiff because of the Flyplate. Especially on downhills, I experienced some painful discomfort. So it’s good news if they’ve fixed this!

Yeah I strongly believe we’ll see them at UTMB for sure! I also think the Ultrafly 2 is already approved for any competition.

I guess the UTMB results will answer that. What’s certain is Caleb Olson already wore them to win Western States 100.

Nike generally designs their serious trail shoes for pros with perfect form. They want to show them winning. That’s all well and good, but most of their trail shoes don’t work for the average trail runner. Zegamas were so unstable that I felt broken after a 50 k and I’m used to longer than 50k distance. The ultra fly was made for buffed out California trails and not east coast technical trials. I don’t count on Nikes because they don’t design for the vast majority of use cases.

For dirt roads I picked up some Nike Ultrafly. Retired a pair at 615 miles and am about 400 miles into a second pair. Tried a pair of Nike peg trail 4’s in between, but they were a let down after the ultraflys. Most of my real running is on steep, rocky trails in the mountains, though, where I switch between Arcteryx Norvan SL3 for really fast efforts and VJ Maxx2 as my all arounder. Love both of these shoes. Edit: rocky trails in the mountains, not “Rocky Mountain” trails.

Nike Ultrafly Trail might make the cut

I have no experience with the peg5, but I did grab some peg4 trails after putting over 600mi into a pair of ultraflys. Took only a few runs (~40mi) to decide I much preferred another pair of ultraflys. Got them for less than $100 at that point. I have about 500mi on them now and hoping to see what/when the ultrafly2 will be. The peg4’s felt kind of stiff and boring by comparison. And I’m a person that typically runs in very low stack shoes on actual trails. Ultraflys and peg4 were for paved, dirt, and gravel roads. Hate the ultraflys on actual east coast trails.

One thing I will add is the ultraflys are significantly wider in the sole than most of my other shoes. I notice this when running through mud. They float like snowshoes on top instead of punching through. The tread is fine for mud, just the substantial surface area of the sole can make things a little squirrelly. That wide platform makes for a nice stable shoe otherwise.

I wear Nike Ultrafly on that type of terrain

My go-to gravel shoe has been the Nike Ultrafly Trail. I put 650 miles on one pair and just passed 500 on a second pair. Really well suited to hilly gravel and dirt roads. They’re expensive at full retail price but can be found on steep discounts. I hate them for technical trails though.

Yeah. Couple factors in that mileage. For one, you are a lot heavier than me, so that would likely accelerate the wear rate. A second factor is that the running I really like to do is technical trails and mountain running where i use very minimally cushioned shoes. So even after pounding on the ultraflys for 500+ miles they still offer significantly more cushion than my typical shoe. Note that I avoid using the ultraflys on technical terrain at almost all costs 😀 In my case I retired them because I had completely worn through the tread and into the midsole in the heels. This is because I use them almost exclusively for runs up and down a local mountain on fire roads and a paved auto road to the top. So they saw a lot of heel striking when descending steep pavement. This is pretty abusive for a trail shoe. Contrast this with my typical technical trail shoes where I wear out the tread under the forefoot long before the heel. Anyway, I’m just starting to wear through the tread into the midsole on my current pair. I can feel the foam being a little dead, squishy, and unresponsive back there now, but still plenty of cushion for me. I will add that I tried out a pair of Nike Pegasus Trail 4 shoes between the two pairs of ultraflys, and they really felt like a letdown compared to the ultraflys. They just felt kinda dead by comparison. Ultraflys really do soak up gravel nicely. And they’re a nice wide and stable shoe which has been awesome for recovery runs and such on milder terrain.

Nike Ultrafly Trail would get my vote

I use Nike Ultrafly for the exact scenarios you describe. It’s not a lightweight shoe, though. But that hasn’t bothered me. And I’m someone who seeks out light shoes because I run a lot of steep technical ascents where weight really is noticeable. For example, I wear Arcteryx Norvan SL3 a lot, and I don’t think you can find a lighter trail runner on the market right now.

I have wide and flat feet, I raced a trail half in the Nike ultrafly yesterday, awesome shoe

Ultraflys are totally fine for 100s if they fit your feet well. They and the Zegama 2s have a vibram sole so less chance of slipping in wet conditions. I’ve worn Ultraflys, Trail Pegs, and Zegamas for nontechnical 100s. I think I liked the Zegamas the most, despite the higher weight. Ultraflys work really well for faster running, but don’t do much once I was on the back half of the race and mixing walking and running a lot more. Trail Pegs are good, but I prefer the Zegama cushion for 100 miles.

Totally butting in and hijacking but thinking of doing a few of these Cascades/ Palouse trail marathons (and also a hundred but that is a different shoe conundrum). Wondering if you have chosen your shoe for the marathon yet? On the roads I normally use the prime x strung so that is definitely NOT going to work for the gravel marathon! I tried the ultraflys last weekend on that terrain and while I do like those on trail, I didn't really dig them on the all gravel. As an aside any love or hate for the deviate elite trail? Thank you for any thoughts and may you crush your marathon!

Zegama is a great shoe but if you’re really looking for some bounce, the Ultraflys are sick.

I tried Nike Ultrafly’s and the Hoka Tecton 2. I liked the Tecton a lot and used them for a 50M non technical race , they were great.

I have Zegama 2 and Ultrafly from Nike. Both good but I would really try Ultraflys at least for me they are crazy nice and roadlike feeling shoes, very stable and responsive. Toe box is very nice and wide and wahts more important the foam in front is like wider on the bottom (hard to explain) just the fron is giving you a very stable run and with a very nice stiff back around ankle it really plants your foot in place (and I had my ankles srrpingkled number of thimes back when I was playing baksetball) . Not sure why they made them so expensive as a stock price and kinda put into premium shoe for racing category bc in reality they are great for easy runs and long runs. And you can find them on sales nowadays like I bought mine new for 130e or so. Zegama is great too but a bit higher and toe is a lil bit smaller and they are a bit less stable (nothing unstable but a bit less then ultrafly) TLDR. I have like 6 pairs from nike (new to running, came from cycling) and I like ultrafly so much that I prefer them over any road shoe I have.

i know it will sound crazy weird but nike ultrafly (yes those with a carbon plate) are crazy supportive bc the front is very wide and it has a trapezoid shape meaning the bottom is much wider then the top, for me they are the most stable shoes out there. you can add a cudtom sole for the pronation support and you should be gucci

in what way? carbon plate just makes the shoe much more stable laterally so you can't twist the sole that easily which makes the whole shoe very stable anyways you can get them on sales for 120e or so and for me they are more stable then my road running shoes

I have the Saucony Endorphin Edge, the Nike Ultrafly, the Adidas Speed Ultra, S/Lab Genesis, S/Lab Pulsar, Hoka Tecton X1 et X3, etc. I have over 60 shoes, trail and road. Each of these super shoes is very different ... For 12km technical races, I've been using **Pulsar SG** for the past few years because it's the lightest + most nimble + deeper lugs. But it's not the most versatile imho, it's quite narrow and I would not run longer distances. I would say my top 3 so far : 1- Tecton X3 : first pick for training and for races over 25km, if it's not too technical 2- Endorphin Edge : first pick for less than 25km, if it's not too technical 3- Nike Ultrafly : first pick for soft midsole, training any distance I'm not sure what I would use for a technical 12km+ race. Maybe S/Lab Genesis but I've not tested enough. Regarding, Adidas Speed Ultra, it's a very narrow shoe, not a fan so far. Tecton X1 is fine for training. I tried Norda 001 but returned it, I was not really impressed for the price. I will probably try Norda 005.

Mostly due to toebox width, I now use Speedgoats for longer trainings, and for racing ultras it's either Nike Ultrafly (dry/faster courses) or Mafate 4s (for more technical/muddy races). If you're lucky, you can find Ultryfly under 150 Euro right now and I gotta say, this shoe really surprised me. Wider than any Nike shoes I had before and Vibram outsole is a game changer!

Have you considered Pegasus Trail? I've used Pegasus Trail 4 for a long time and they're really good road to trail shoe. NOT for wet surfaces though. What about Ultrafly? They're pretty fast but do break a bank.

Ultraflys ruined my feet on a 100km nearly snapped my tendon to my big toe. I put them straight in the bin afterwards. Other than my vaporflys I am not buying Nike again

I love the wild horses, I’m on my 5th or 6th pair. As someone with absolutely no arches and semi-wide feet, the WH’s feels the best on my feet. I live in Colorado so I’ve got miles and miles of trail, Pikes Peak Ascent and at least a dozen 14ers in them. That being said, I literally just tried on the Ultraflys earlier today and omg, like buttah. I found them online cheaper than retail, I might cheat on my Wildhorses tbh.

I LOVED my Nike Ultrafly trail Shoes. I did a very hilly 50 miler and a 100 K in them! (And I do tend to over pronate)

I have about 10 running shoes. 4 trail; 3 road-to-trail hybrids which are Nike Pegasus 5 and NB heirro 8. The NB has more cushioning and good to less technical trail, the Pegasus handles wet, mud better and speed work. NB better for longer distance, say 20-40k. Hoka challenger also great for hybrid if you like cushioning. Then all trials I have Hoka mofate speed 4. Testing these ahead of my first ultra (52) in May. Uk based and this race could be mega boggy, wet, slippery with hills, or dry. So I may use a hybrid if dry the week before. So far the Hoka seem great, so much grip from the vibram sole, but good cushioning (I’m 95kg so I pound the trail lol). Doing 30k tomorrow so will see if they hold up with the cushioning! I tried the Nike Ultrafly too which were good but not worth the money so i returned them.

Second this! I am a 2E and can wear the ultra fly comfortably. The lugs aren’t deep but on non muddy surfaces they’re really grippy.

I have two sets of trail shoes. Nike Peg 4 Goretex for wet runs and Nike Ultrafly Trail shoes. I run alot of trails but most are pretty smooth. Both of my shoes have run a lot of road miles to get to the trailheads. I do have three sets of road shoes, but those mainly stick to the roads. Having a big comfy soft shoe like the Puma Mag Max has changed my life during those slow recover runs.

Give the Nike Ultrafly a look. I’ve run in them a lot and they are actually really good. They feel cushioned and I think they handle technical terrain well. The drainage for water is also pretty good if you’re doing any water crossings.

Check out the Nike Ultrafly. I have wide feet and they are much wider than regular Nike running shoes. They feel really good on the feet.

I’ve run a few 50ks of mixed terrain. I also did a Spartan Ultra 50k in them which was 75% mud. They felt great the entire time honestly. Especially for a carbon plated trail shoe. They’re very bouncy and light, which some people do not like on a trail shoe. You could probably just try it on and tell if it’s going to be too much. [https://imgur.com/a/IwKiSha](https://imgur.com/a/IwKiSha)

This is going to go against the grain here but give the Nike Ultrafly a chance. They’re surprisingly grippy and cushioned. And the widest toe box I’ve ever had in a Nike.

All going to depend on you. A lot of people love speed goats, I hated them. A lot of people hate the Nike Ultrafly, I love them. Best advice is to go somewhere that you can try on multiple brands and find out what works for you.

How does the midsole compare to the 8’s? I LOVED the 7’s (went through 4 pairs of them) though the outsole left something to be desired. The 8’s had better outsole, but the midsole foam was too mushy and not responsive imo. I’m currently running in the ultrafly’s and really like them, but I’m super curious about the new WH’s since I liked the 7’s so much.

Nike ultrafly are pretty good if it's not too technical of a course!

Currently running in Metaspeed Edge shoes which I really like and for trail Nike Ultrafly shoes for my trail running. I find the ultrafly really supportive and grippy but I’d like to give the metafuji a go given my experience with the Metaspeeds… Nice review.

Surprised no one's mentioned the Ultraflys, esp since you can easily find a pair for ~50%+ off! The ASU's can be found on the low too, but are way too unstable to be viable for anything remotely technical imo. The new Puma DNE Trail is better in every way if you want to be fast + nimble. And the Ultraflys for comfort, as they are the most wide foot friendly out of the big 3. I've also heard good things about the Tecton X3! _ Personal recommendations that might fit your needs: All of these models prioritize stability/ lockdown, featuring durable lugs + amazing grip (VJ Ultra 3 + Puma DNE Trail tied for best traction), while having more than enough cushion (without having to worry about bottoming out/durability issues) to carry you through the slog... All around ~30mm of stack (Prodigio Pro being the lowest @ 34/28mm, and VJ Ultra 3 the highest @ 38/30mm. *Prodigio Pro ft. supercritical TPU core (possibly aliphatic?) + EVA carrier. Arguably the best non-plated option, w/ durability + price taken into account! (Norda 005 takes the cake if not) My pick for mud + technical terrain, alongside PDX. ($195) *VJ Ultra 3 ft. supercritical TPU core + EVA carrier, plated. Tied w/ Ultrafly in terms of comfort and Puma in terms of grip. Smooth rocker. My personal favorite upper + pick for cold weather. ($190) *DNE Trail ft. ATPU + carbon fiber plate. Only a 6mm drop compared to road version's 10mm. World class energy return + Puma grip (only 3mm lugs, surprisingly durable tho). On the narrow side. Classic race style upper, one of my favorite iterations of Ultraweave. My pick for nimbleness, speed/agility. ($230) *Ultrafly ft. Pebax + carbon fiber plate. 38.5/30mm stack. Classic ZoomX feel out of the box (bounce + comfort), wide toe box. Supportive lightweight upper, albeit not the most breathable. Safe/protective underfoot feel. My pick considering price. Right behind Puma in terms of energy return.

It’s not the greatest shoe in the world, but the Nike Ultrafly has a very roomy toe box. It’s a solid shoe for trail races as long as the terrain isn’t too technical or muddy.

Depends in the terrain and to some degree, the pace. Nike Ultrafly are a good shoe on gravel and will groomed trails, adidas Agravic Terrex Speed Ultra is the same, albeit has a very different feel. Get more technical and you might look at the Hoka Tectonic x3.

Nike Zegama 2, Nike Ultrafly, Asics Novablast TR.

I’ve got both and they’re very different shoes. The Nike is softer, but more stable and not quite as exciting a ride. They fit really well and are comfy on foot. The adidas is a seriously fast shoe, but it has an aggressive rocker and feels unstable to me. The fit is poor too, particularly around the heel. On paper, I think the adidas is a faster shoe, but I’ve chosen to the Nike for most of my events as I trust the fit and feel underfoot.

I’ve seen the Ultrafly on offer in a few places so you might get lucky. It fits true to size.

i really like my Nike trail runner, i bought a few pair of the first iteration of the pegasus goretex trail. Looks like they aren't as wide in the newer iterations, but they have held up really well and the react foam is great.

>... false sense of security so you roll/sprain your ankle worse. This was very true for me :) In my country the "old hiking rule" was that you always need high boots for mountains because they would protect your ankles. But it turns out that with high boots I had a false sense of security and was thus less careful when descending and consequently often twisted my ankle. The high shoe maybe helped a bit and prevented a harder sprain but it still hurt. I then switched to trail runners and I can see that I now walk way more carefully and have a way more precise foot placement than before. Consequently I haven't twisted my ankle ever since the switch. However it must be said that not all trail runners are equal in terms of stability and ground feel... La Sportiva Bushido which I have now are awesome but some Nike trail runners I had in the past were very bad and unstable.

I got nike trail runners and they work great. If theres a nike outlet store you can find them on sale.. I make sure I get just the right size and not too loose so they're not sloppy. Personally I put in the spenco runner gel insoles to reduce impact because I play on turf half the time. I also rock the mcdavid level 3 ankle braces om both feet s. This helps make sure I never roll my ankle. Hope this helps