At this stage, Nike keeps reminding us that when it comes to running shoes, it's in a league of its own. Those latest Vomero Premiums? Chef's kiss.

But take the Nike Structure Plus for a change: now available in "Iron Purple", it's a men’s road runner that suddenly feels like it’s done being pigeonholed as the sensible safe option. Reliable mileage, the workhorse, it used to be the pair you lace up for your weekly 10K, then slide back onto the rack without much of a fuss. In this new guise, however, an unassuming go-to steps straight into the spotlight.

Anything but shy, this latest version of the esteemed Nike running shoe is rich, brooding, dramatic, painted a kind of hue that doesn’t just show up at the run club, but leads it.

It’s not unlike Nike to drop a bizarre colorway like this, but pairing of this soft purple and punchy green, in particular, feels so wrong it's right.

Even so, the Structure Plus still does what it’s supposed to: it stabilizes and supports. "But why should performance shoes look purely practical then?" its designers must've thought.

It’s time the “responsible” running shoe got a little reckless. Technical still, but it no longer screams “orthopedic.”

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