2015 Ultimate Product Reviews: Nike Vapor Speed Irons

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April is the first full month of spring, and with that comes the Masters and the start of the golf season. Learning about all the new products out there is one of my favorite ways to prepare for another year on the course. I hope you’ve been enjoying this new series where I compile all the best product reviews and put them into one place to make it easy for everyone to find. I hope you find these ultimate product reviews helpful! – Matt

Club Name: Vapor Speed Irons
Brand: Nike Golf
Category: Max Game Improvement
Price Point: $800 steel, $900 graphite
Specs: Clubs available 3–SW (19 to 54 degrees). Steel Shafts – True Temper Dynalite 105. Graphite Shafts – Mitsubishi Fubuki Z 70. Stock Grip: Nike Tour Velvet.

You can view the full list of specifications here.

Summary

The Nike Vapor Speed irons are one of the three sets in the Nike Vapor irons family. They are the most forgiving of the three. Single handicap players should go for the Vapor Pro irons while mid-handicap players can opt for the Vapor Pro Combo irons. With FlyBeam reinforced hollow cavity long irons and RZN cavity short irons, the Vapor Speed iron heads maximize energy return and combine stability with refined feedback to offer pure power on the course.

Special Notes

You can purchase your own set of the Nike Vapor Speed irons by visiting the Nike Golf website.

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THE REVIEWS

1. Golf Digest: Gold Rating. Nike took a metal-wood approach when designing this iron, and we admire the effort and execution. In clubs down to the 7-iron, a face made of high-strength steel alloy has been slimmed down to just 2.7 millimeters in the center and even thinner (2.2 mm) on the outside. The thin face adds zip to your ball speed and allows weight to be positioned low and back to help get the ball in the air quicker.

2. Golf Magazine: Love it. PLAYABILITY: Among the top-ranked models in the category; can be worked in either direction with relative ease by our stronger players; consistent medium-high ball flight; very useful from tough lies. ACCURACY/FORGIVENESS: Pretty decent directional control—wild shots are minimized; minor misses maintain distance fairly well. CONS: Not as much help on mis-hits as you’d expect from a max game-improvement design—decent forgiveness compared with some others; a little light for a few players’ tastes; the thinner sole width and minimal offset can make them a bit harder to hit than some others in their class.

3. Plugged In Golf: Love It. The Nike Vapor Speed irons might be one of the best sets I’ve ever seen for this player. The Vapor Speed would offer the same forgiving performance, while at the same time providing similar benefits of a player’s club like a cleaner, smoother look and better responsiveness across the face of the golf club. Nike keeps cranking out better and better equipment with each new generation. Even if you’re late to the Nike Golf party, I can promise you that it’s only going to keep getting better.

4. Rick Shiels PGA: Like it.

5. Golf Magic: Like It. Narrowly misses our podium but we can see this one proving popular, particularly given this is the game-improvement offering in the new Vapor line as used by Rory McIlroy. All testers tipped their caps to the fresh new looks and agreed Vapor Speed is one of the most forgiving irons for 2015. Not the longest and a harsh feel at impact lets it down slightly, but great value for money at £500.

6. Golf A Lot: 4 out of Stars. Whilst I am sure Nike saw a smooth transition between the 3 models, the Speed irons are probably a little further apart from the Pro Combo than the Combo’s are to the Pro. That’s not a bad thing, as the generous heads with their larger cavities offer mid handicappers the chance to have a blade style iron that gives them more margin for error. Overall I am a fan of the Nike Vapor irons. I feel that they work as a family and the styling and modern muscle design bring a new element to blade style irons that combines the best of forgiveness with traditional styling.

7. Golf WRX: Like It. The Vapor Speed irons utilize face-centered weighting that’s consistently low and forward throughout the set for a higher launch. The long irons (3-7) have hollow cavity backs are reinforced with a “FlyBeam” behind the face for forgiveness, while the 8-SW short irons have RZN cavity backs. The irons will have a moderate sole width and X3X milled grooves on the face.

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