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Warholm warns shoe technology could hurt credibility
18th August 2021
New Craft CTM Ultra Carbon Race Rebel running shoe is sleek, sexy and seriously fast
The Race Rebel is a superlight racing shoe designed for "record-breaking performances" on road surfaces
17th August 2021
Olympic ‘super’ track, shoes stir records debate
12th August 2021
New Puma Spectra running shoes are giving me serious UA FLOW Velociti Wind vibes
The Puma Spectra Pack includes new iterations and silhouettes in its signature NITRO running line
11th August 2021
On Cloudboom Echo Review: On’s Best Yet, But Still Outgunned
The Cloudboom Echo is a terrific carbon racer that offers a firmer ride than most super-shoes
9th August 2021
Boing! Could Nike’s controversial Air Zoom Victory shoes bounce me to glory?
New ‘trampoline’ trainers are helping the pros run faster. Martin Hemming tests if they’ll work on amateurs as well
8th August 2021
Nike’s ‘super shoes’ prompt a revolution on the track and in the marathon
The world’s most profitable athletic brand has introduced breakthrough technologies in Tokyo at every distance from the 100-metres to the marathon
8th August 2021
I Ran My Fastest 5K *Ever* in Nike’s Newest Sneaker
7th August 2021
Athletics-As times shrink, shoe debate grows
7th August 2021
Lord Coe backs innovation and rejects idea super spikes have changed athletics
4th August 2021
Karsten Warholm criticises super spikes as threat to track and field ‘credibility’
Olympic 400m hurdles champion does not wear super spikes
Warholm bemoans ‘trampoline’ effect of foam cushion
4th August 2021
'Having a trampoline is b------t': Super shoes controversy reignited by world-record shattering star Karsten Warholm
Karsten Warholm admits super spikes are having impact on times, but says there's a difference between his shoes and Rai Benjamin's ones
3rd August 2021
A Multitude Of Swooshes Are Hidden On This Women’s Nike ZoomX Vaporfly NEXT% 2
2nd August 2021
Performance enhancing shoes? How Nike’s controversial Vaporfly line redefined running
“Fast” is the word that Rachel Bull, senior footwear product director at Nike Running, uses to describe the company’s Vaporfly series of running shoes.
2nd August 2021
A spring in your step: What’s inside the new running ‘super’ shoes?
Nearly every road runner and some big track stars at these Olympics are wearing a new type of shoe – that have ignited debate. Why?
2nd August 2021
On Cloudboom Echo review
A pricey racing shoe that offers a more enjoyable ride than the original
1st August 2021
The North Face Flight Series Vectiv shoes: an innovative option for experienced trail runners
The North Face Flight Series Vectiv aims to set a high, new bar for trail running shoes. Does it deliver? Here's our review
28th July 2021
Adidas Adizero Boston 10 Running Shoe Review: Meet The All-New Boston
The Boston is back with a completely new design, but have the changes improved the shoe?
27th July 2021
What’s Next For Nike’s Much-Debated “Super Shoe”?
HYPEBEAST sits down with the brand’s head of design to find out its plans for its record-breaking performance sneakers.
27th July 2021
Vaporfly shoes will help me reach my marathon dream. Should I use them?
26 January 2020 (The Guardian) By JAMIE DOWARD
“After years of trying to beat the three-hour barrier, new technology could get me there. Or is that cheating?”
My name is Jamie and I’m a cheat. This is my confession.
As with most things today, the internet is largely to blame. Initially, I started exploring online forums, seeking others with my own niche interests. Much of the stuff was pretty hardcore. Some swore that regular doses of beetroot juice could boost my performance. Others suggested forgoing meat. Perhaps experimenting at altitude might help.
But a consensus quickly emerged: if I wanted to run a sub-three-hour marathon, the best thing I could do was buy a pair of Nike Vaporfly shoes. With a price tag of £240 and a running life of only about 200 miles, the shoes cost anywhere between two and three times the price of others. But almost everyone swore they were worth it. As one forum dweller said: “They really are magic.”
For once, the hype matched reality. Using data taken from users of the running app Strava, the New York Times reported that, yes, it was just as Nike claimed: the shoes could shave about 4% off a marathon time for certain runners. For someone who runs marathons in around three hours and eight minutes, this sort of saving was the equivalent of blood-doping.
This is because the Vaporfly combines a carbon plate and compressed foam to give runners incredible returns on energy expended.
How Nike broke running
01 February 2020 (WIRED) By MATT BURGESS
“While Nike’s Vaporfly Next% has survived a ban from the 2020 Olympics, any future versions of the shoe will be outlawed. And the trainers have changed running forever”
For 17 months at the end of the 2000s, swimming went through a golden age. Between 2008 and 2009, more than 130 world records, across all distances and strokes, were smashed. American swimmer Michael Phelps was in his prime, and after the 2008 Beijing Olympics there were only four events – the men's 400- and 1,500-metre freestyle and women's 100-metre breaststroke and butterfly – that survived the world record onslaught.
Many of the records set in this period still remain today, with swimmers unable to match the performances of the previous generation. But the brief period of success was mired in controversy.
Swimming's record-breaking months were largely down to Speedo. The company's LZR Racer swimsuit line, which hit the market in February 2008, covered almost all of a swimmer's exposed skin and compressed the body into a more streamlined shape. The polyurethane-based material also trapped air, giving extra buoyancy.
The swimsuits sparked an arms race between sport manufacturers: Speedo’s rivals rushed to create their own similar suits, each wanting to give athletes an extra edge. Swimming's governing body, FINA, was caught out by the rapid technological progress. “The regulations that FINA had in place at the time didn't anticipate some of the technological advances that particularly Speedo and other brands were driving,” says Mike Caine, a professor of sport technology and innovation at Loughborough University.
By the time it came to swimming's world championships in 2009, FINA had stepped up to questions raised around the ethics of using high-tech swimsuits to obliterate the previous best efforts of humans. The governing body tested almost 400 models of swimsuits and approved 202 for use in the event. At the start of 2010, it introduced new regulations on the coverage and materials of suits, effectively banning the performance-enhancing technologies.
Nike's controversial Vaporfly shoes powered the world's 2 fastest marathoners to victory. When I tried them, it felt like running on rocking horses.
30 January 2020 (Business Insider) By AYLIN WOODWARD
I walked into Nike's New York headquarters clad in Nike shorts, pants, and socks. But it was difficult to hide the offending triple stripe on my Adidas sneakers.
I was there to try the Nike ZoomX Vaporfly Next%, the latest iteration of Nike's controversial Vaporfly running shoe.
This class of Nike shoe confers at least 4% energy savings per foot fall, according to tests by Nike scientists and independent research labs. In 2019, runners wearing Vaporflys claimed 31 out of the 36 male and female podium spots in the six biggest marathons around the world.
I had to get them on my feet to see what the fuss was about.
I've been covering the science of Vaporflys since October, when Eliud Kipchoge broke the 2-hour-marathon mark wearing a Vaporfly prototype.
His pacesetters ran it in the same shoe I was about to put on at Nike.