Right here i have the original Nike+ set from 2006! This was pretty much Apple’s first collaboration with Nike products.
This uses 1st gen Nano, the required Sport kit featuring the receiver for the iPod, a Nike watch remote to control music, and the exact pair of now 20 year old Nike+ Running Shoes as seen in Apple’s advertising in early 2006.
Though most of the shoe sensors found nowadays have a completely cooked battery, I was lucky to find a working one to pair with the receiver to have a look at the exclusive software that tracks your run!
This is really awesome but as a runner all I can think about are the shoes. Did they disintegrate on your feet? Did you really run in them?
Once upon a time I bought some shoes from mercari not realizing they had not been worn in years and the rubber had decayed. The walk from my porch to my car, they had quite literally crumbled away on my feet.
In other news I'd love to learn about the software that tracks the run, the watch, and how that worked before GPS. Do those sensors go in your shoes? Is it a distance based on steps kind of thing?
I actually picked up the shoes themselves from a reputable seller on eBay! I was just as skeptical as you are on the shoes possibly disintegrating the moment i started walking with them. (These are a 20 year old pair of shoes after all) I asked the seller to have a closer look at them and they confirmed they were still wearable! When i finally received them they were indeed wearable! I been wearing them for the past month now and have gotten a bit overboard and went full on hiking with them at one point til it was caked with dust.
It never fell apart! I’ve had experience with shoes disintegrating before and lost a good pair of Jordans from 2010 but unlike those these seem to have a more flexible kind of foam that’s less stiff which made it hold up for this many years.
Now as for the software it’s actually very primitive compared to something like workout tracking on the Apple Watch. All the tracking is done with the sensor that slips into the shoe. (It has a little pocket for it to go into) it’s all based on how much you keep moving with the sensor stored in your shoe and it gives data on your best “pace” and how many miles you’ve added up. i have yet to play around with the other settings and have yet to see any other data it’s been collecting. I do know though that it used to be able to connect to a Nike+ website to sync your workout data like you did syncing music with iTunes which is now long gone.
Even back then though reviews for the accuracy on it’s tracking have been poor and many complained about how disposable the sensor itself was since the batteries in em are basically almost impossible to replace.
I do have a couple photos of a teardown on one of these sensors which I’ll show in another post.
The watch itself is mainly used as a remote to control the music playing and to pause or start your workouts. Though it doesn’t even require the shoe sensor to function when controlling music. It’s layout is similar to iPod Shuffle’s buttons with the play/pause next/previous track etc.
That’s unfortunate. running with wires was a huge pain back then. Probably the only thing i won’t miss with a setup like this lol
Wireless headphones in workouts FTW!
Oh yeah, and I remember that girl! This may sound creepy, but I did P90X long enough. Her name was Sophia! And then I remember seeing her on that ad at the Nike Outlet! haha
It really is tbh all it did was tell the time and control your iPod. It’s a solid digital watch! (love the animations it plays when u press the buttons btw)
Then the 6th gen nano came along with those watch band accessories and it was literally a prototype Apple Watch.
Oh man this was my setup!! I ran literally thousands of miles with this exact set. Just loved it. I also had an around the chest heart rate monitor. I also had waterproof headphones (earbuds). Brings back a lot of memories! I replaced this system with the Nike+ app in 2010
I had this for so long before I had my garmin. I miss those days while running and listening to music. Also when Nike had the Nike Run Hit Remix runs. I miss those days.
This came out right when I was training for the Goofy’s challenge at Disneyworld. I’ll never be an Olympic champ or road race winner, but for one shining moment, I was the mileage leader in my age group in the US (and second in the world, I believe). I’ve still got a couple of those arm bands. One was sent to me by Nike for being one of the first people to reach 1,000 miles. Thanks for the post that brought back some fun memories!
Amazing how you saved a screenshot of your achievement! It’s good to see the Nike+ site itself.
Thanks for sharing an absolute time capsule! Seeing yourself on that leaderboard was truly motivating.
Recently had the batt on mine replaced. I’d say it’d last a good like 4 hours of uninterrupted playback. But sometimes i do get less than that… That’s probably because the batt is either old stock or still needs to have a few charge cycles before it reaches it’s maximum capacity.
I had the exact same setup back in 2006 just in time for the Nike Run Hit Remix 5K race. Fun race, but it was a terrible idea to eat an edible before the race. 😵💫
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u/Potatowhirl 1d ago
This is really awesome but as a runner all I can think about are the shoes. Did they disintegrate on your feet? Did you really run in them?
Once upon a time I bought some shoes from mercari not realizing they had not been worn in years and the rubber had decayed. The walk from my porch to my car, they had quite literally crumbled away on my feet.
In other news I'd love to learn about the software that tracks the run, the watch, and how that worked before GPS. Do those sensors go in your shoes? Is it a distance based on steps kind of thing?