Last month, we made our way to Nike HQ in NYC to workout, try out their Hybrid RN training sneaker, and being able to train with Nike athlete, 2026 HYROX Elite 16 Singles Men’s World Championship and 2024 Doubles World Championship, Dylan Scott. We sat down with him to talk about why this sneaker is a game changer, how he came to Nike, the HYROX season and what it entails.

ATHLEISURE MAG: So, how did you first get connected to Nike?

DYLAN SCOTT: I think this kind of goes all the way back to February of 2025. So that was when I first got with my agent at Ripple Sports. It was through him that this kind of started. So we started the conversations and that would have been a little bit later on in the year after World Championships, right? So, I ended up finishing third at Worlds in 2025, in Chicago, and then after that, the conversations started and Nike came after which is really cool to say. They pretty much wanted to come into the hybrid training space and the hybrid racing space. We started contract negotiations and so it was in September of 2025 that I was on the radar, and then we had kind of formally signed things behind the scenes in November. It all got announced in January of this year.

AM: For our readers who may not be familiar, HYROX is a global indoor fitness race that contains 8 1-kilometer runs with 8 functional workout stations.

Is there a season for this sport?

DS: If you were to look at the season, it’s gonna basically start with the big races\ where you can start qualifying for Worlds that’ll normally start in late September, early October. This year, it’s not going to start until late October. Worlds is normally in June. It’s a very long season and a lot of people race year round. You’ll have people who will just be consistently in decent shape. Being ranked is based on points and there’s points allocated for every single race. So, if you’re in a regular race and you finish. First, you get 105 points. So, basically, you’re ranking in the world system. The point system is based on the 5 races.

In my races, I had a second place at a major a second place at a regional, a second place at a major one for World, and then one another race. All those add up together, and that gives me like 540 some points.

So that has me at number one right now. Now, if you don’t have 5 races, then you’re not eligible to be in the majors. The major is the only way to qualify for Worlds. So people will race in the off season to accumulate points to be eligible to raise the majors, so that’s how you get people racing year round.

If you looked at the real flow though, it is early September/October when you’re going to start having your first Majors. You’ll have 5 of those that’ll qualify you for the World championships, which will be in June normally. So, it’s running from September to June, and so

AM: What is taking place in these events?

DS: You’re gonna have 8 runs. And you’re gonna have 8 stations, and you’re gonna have a run interspersed between each station. You’re running just over 5 miles in total, so it’s a kilometer per run, so 8K is 4.9 something miles, and then there’s 700 meters of transition stuff. So it comes out to about 8,700 meters running. If it’s measured perfectly, then every station always goes the same, which is Skiered Sled, Push Sled, Pull Burpee, Broad Jumps - Farmers Carry Lunges, and Wall Balls.

AM: Wow.

DS: You have certain distances, weights, and everything that you do.

The weights will vary depending on the division you race in. So for the the elite category, it’s ski a thousand meters 50 meter sled push with 440 pounds, 50 meter sled pool with 350 pounds. Burpee, Broad jump 80 meters row a thousand, and Farmers Carrier with two 70 pound kettlebells,

Lunge with a 66 pound sandbag for 100 meters and then, uh, wall ball 100 times the 20 pound ball. So, that’s the men’s Elite weights.

AM: Clearly, that is a total body workout. What are 3 workouts you do in training mode to help optimize you in this sport?

DS: I’ve found like things that you have to train specifically. You know, a workout that I’ll do will be something like every four minutes. Okay, I’m gonna run 500 meters. I’m gonna do a 20 meter sled pool, and then I’m gonna ride an assault bike very easy until the four minute mark. I’m gonna repeat that for an hour, so we’ll rip through that 15 times. So if you are looking at sled pull – that’s a specific training session where you come in with a high heart rate, like you’re gonna have in the race.

You let your body recover a little bit. Repeat that. Repeat that. Repeat that. It basically drill it into your system to be able to do it. You’ll do all kinds of iterations of stuff, like that pairing in lunges, wall balls, machine work. Sometimes you’ll do ski and wall balls, it’s really just finding ways to blend together.

AM: What does recovery look like, coming off of these races?

DS: That’ll depend on whether it’s international or not. So if you have to fly back home, recovery is terrible because, you have a day, and then you go travel and fly back, you know? So that that’ll take two weeks to recover your entire system. Now you’re still training throughout that, but you understand that you’re susceptible to getting hurt or getting sick. One of the biggest things for Recovery is sleep. I have so many athletes that don’t feel like they’re recovering.

I ask them how much they are sleeping, how much they eating, and they’ll say that they are getting 5 hours of sleep. I tell them that there’s the first problem. So it’s really those two things make up the vast majority of your recovery. And then, it’s all these little things at the end using stuff like Hyperice boots, using compression sleeves and focusing on your mobility – are you foam rolling at all? It works for me, so I do that. It feels like it works - even if that is a placebo, it works. That is a placebo I am willing to do. That’s fine. You basically take care of the essentials.

You also make sure that with all this training and everything that your underlying health, is good. For a while, I was anemic while I was trying to race, and I was, like, dude, I feel tired all the time. I was working a job while racing while starting up a coaching company.

I’d fall asleep in the middle of the day. As a coach, I talk to the people I train about that. Your body knows one thing, and that’s called stress. It knows the stress inputs, and it has to recover from that. Whether it’s coming from a workout, your child being sick, or work.

AM: How does that dynamic work for being a coach and an elite athlete?

DS: It’s actually great. If you’re only focused on yourself, it kind of sucks, like a very selfish life, like that is not very fun. With other athletes and just other people in general, it makes you outwardly aware.

It was great to hang out with the Nike team, workout with them, and to be able to put their latest Hybrid RN shoes through their paces as it really allows you to do an array of workouts without feeling the need to carry multiple shoes to do them!

This everyday training shoe is built for hybrid fitness for running and cross training for activities like HYROX which allows you to smoothly transition from running, heavy lifting, and dynamic movements.

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PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | Nike