Rise of the super shoes: London Marathon to showcase technological foot race

W hen the world’s greatest distance athletes square off in the London Marathon on Sunday, there will be a battle within a battle, a technological arms race within the race. In the myriad fascinating storylines – a potential women’s world record, Mo Farah’s last dance over 26.2 miles and four of the five fastest men in history slugging it out – there is an intriguing multimillion-dollar subplot that pits brand against brand, and super shoe against super shoe.

Since the creation of these shoes in 2016, Nike athletes have dominated the marathon – and the company has reaped the financial rewards. Having world record-holder Eliud Kipchoge in the famous swoosh helped, of course. But it wasn’t just him. In 2019, Nike athletes took 31 of the 36 podium places in the six marathon majors. It sent a subliminal message to ordinary runners. Want to smash your personal bests? Buy Nike’s Vaporfly or AlphaFly shoes. Now, though, the winds of change are building.

That was starkly illustrated in last Monday’s Boston marathon, where athletes wearing the Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 3 took the top four places in the men’s race. The Kenyan Hellen Obiri used a prototype from the Swiss brand, On, to win the women’s event. While Nike athletes still performed well, the sight of Kipchoge struggling home in sixth appeared emblematic of a change in the guard.

Geoff Burns, a biomechanics expert and sport physiologist, who works for the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee, says: “Nike is no longer the definitive outright leader. I’ve tested a lot of shoe brands and foams and the running economy benefits are now pretty similar.”

Similar, yes, but not identical. While most brands have super shoes containing Pebax foam, which delivers significantly more