Tumbling world records in marathons tied to new shoe technology

[Ben H.]

I saw this article on BBC:

https://www.bbc.com/sport/athletics/67062551#:~:text=Nike%20has%20confirmed%20they%20are,six%20fastest%20times%20in%20history.

It made me think about how this might impact backpacking. Now to be clear, these are not magic shoes but some amount of the improvement is attributable to the shoes. The shoes appear to be (1) very lightweight while (2) still maintaining significant cushion (whether it is cushion or spring could be debated). That also seems to be what people are looking for when they pick out lightweight trail runners for backpacking. Are they shoes specifically attuned to very lightweight, high speed marathon runners or could backpackers see similar benefits. I’m guessing my fat butt would destroy those carbon fiber springs in short order, but who knows. Has anyone tried them out yet?

[Bill Budney]

I prefer shoes/boots with rock plates or a stiff sole (not everyone does). So this could be good.

[bjc]

Problems with these shoes that could be an issue for backpackers:
1. Durability is considerably less than traditional running shoes.
2. Most recent research suggests much less benefit for slower runners so hard to see the benefit for walking speeds.
3. The stack height on these shoes tend to be quite high.

[Author]

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