First Look: Nike Vapor Fairway Woods

Two new Nike Golf fairway metals promote speed and forgiveness

Charlie Lemay

13 Oct 2014

Nike Vapor Flex Fairway Wood

NIKE'S engineers and designers have taken inspiration and insights from its large roster of athletes to drive the technology of its new Vapor Speed and Vapor Flex fairway woods, available on January 31, 2015.

“Athlete insights drove significant chassis refinement in the Vapor fairway woods,” said Nate Radcliffe, Director of Engineering for Nike Golf.

“Our athletes wanted tighter but forgiving leading edges, fuller profiles and added ball speed. We’ve delivered that with the synergy of our FlyBeam and compression channel technologies.”

The Vapor Speed fairway woods have a 25% larger footprint with a lower and deeper Center of Gravity (CG) than previous Nike models.

“Athletes including Tiger Woods requested larger face profiles in fairway woods, but it was vital that we do that without compromising ball speed optimal launch conditions,” said Radcliffe.

“We successfully modified the chassis by sloping the crown to lower the CG which optimized launch characteristics across the family.”

Like the new Vapor driver, the Vapor Speed fairway woods feature Nike’s new FlyBeam-reinforced Covert Cavity Back design, a re-engineered Compression Channel and a NexCOR face – all combining to stabilize the chassis, maximize ball speed and promote longer and straighter distance. The low CG provides a high launch with a lower-spin flight.

The Vapor Flex fairway woods highlight the same technologies found in the Vapor Speed on a more compact chassis, except the Vapor Flex has added Nike’s FlexLoft 2 adjustability system, allowing the golf athlete the functionality of five lofts and three face angles within 15 different settings.