"So far it feels like it's vibrating, almost like a massage, sort of." Those are the words of my colleague, CNET Senior Editor Lisa Eadicicco, when she slipped her feet into a new kind of Nike shoe at CES 2025. Made in partnership with Hyperice, these boatlike booties are basically recovery high-tops festooned with buttons and designed to help your weary tootsies recover from soreness and strain.
Read more: These are the official CES 2025 winners, awarded by CNET Group
The innovative footwear, which we saw in person for the first time in Las Vegas, takes the idea of heating pads and compression socks as part of physical recovery for feet and calves and it makes that idea mobile. Instead of you being laid up on the couch with heating pads, or sliding into compression socks with no additional heating element, these on-the-go boots put heat and compression both into footwear that works on you while you walk around.
What's more, buttons let you adjust the compression to your feet and calves as well as the amount of heat blasting into your weary muscles. There are three settings for each.
"You can definitely feel the heat in here," Eadicicco said as she walked across a demo room in Vegas. The boots massage and compress your ankles and feet, and in our test we could especially feel the heat around the ankles.
Though the Nike x Hyperice shoes first debuted at the Paris Olympics this past summer, we jumped at the chance to try them for ourselves, as a preview of what's ahead in the space where electronics help with active recovery and not just with monitoring your vitals.
The boots are battery-powered and are intended to be used for both warm-ups and postworkout recovery. Nike says a "system of dual-air Normatec bladders bonded to warming elements" spreads heat evenly throughout the boots, aiming to warm the muscle and tissue in your feet and ankles.
Without testing them longer, it's hard to tell how effective the shoes would be as a workout warm-up or recovery system. But at first use, the features are definitely noticeable.
The shoes have Velcro straps, felt soft and comfortable to walk in, and for now come in a size range rather than individual sizes -- so men's size 10-12 for example. Nike is working on a consumer version to go on sale, but there's no word yet on when it'll launch or how much it'll cost.
Nike is also developing a compression and heat vest as part of the wearable line.
For more from CES 2025, check out the most innovative products from the show that you can actually buy now.