An In Depth Look at Olympic Marathon “Super Shoes” | Uni Watch

Good morning Uni Watchers, and Happy Humpday!

This morning we continue our “Olympic Correspondent” coverage or different elements, uniforms, disciplines and specialized footwear for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Today, I’m joined by Adam Hornstein, who has prepared a VERY in-depth look at the footwear being worn for the Olympic Marathon — something known as “Super Shoes.” I have to admit this is a term with which I was not familiar until Adam sent me his piece. And it’s a fantastic rundown.

Even if you’re not a runner or into running, this is definitely worth your time to delve into. I’ll just turn it over to Adam now as he brings you this piece. Take it away!

When Phil sent up the signal for people to write content about the Olympics, I dashed at the chance to share my views on what the Olympics marathoners would be wearing this August as they brave the summer heat during a 26.2-mile run along the Parisian streets. I want to share some insights about – and my personal views on – the most critical part of the runners’ gear: their Super Shoes.

But before diving into the content, a word about me. I’m a 43-year-old attorney who enjoys long distance running. I have a wonderful family that supports and tolerates my mediocre athletic pursuits, which have me out on the road or on the trail, training year-round through icy winters and humid summers. Each year, I rack up about 2,000 miles on the roads and trails, and I try to do two or three long races (marathon or ultramarathon distance) per year. This is to say that I have some opinions on running apparel and how it affects performance, especially when it comes to running shoes.

But more importantly for this column, I have long identified myself as someone who Gets It™. Some of my earliest sport memories are related to uniform aesthetics, especially for my then-home teams in Philadelphia. I recall being upset when my Philadelphia Phillies mothballed their maroons and powder blues for their current set, which I felt were too “old fashioned” since I was young and disliked anything older than I was. I recall being horrified when the Eagles switched to Midnight Green because it felt too much like the Jets’ dark green set. I was, by contrast, delighted when the Sixers went BFBS during the Iverson era, casting aside the risible looks that typified the underperforming mid-90s Sixers. And I even fashioned a homemade Eagles onesie, a Kelly-green Bednarik throwback with hand-cut felt numbers, for my kids when they were little. This is to say that I also have some opinions on the aesthetics of running apparel, especially when it comes to running shoes.

With that prologue out of the way, let me first talk about the technical aspects of the runners’ Super Shoes and what makes them, well, super. Super Shoes are generally defined by two key technical components: a rigid carbon-fiber plate embedded in the midsole (the cushioned layer of the shoe that is right under your foot) and a layer of very light, very tall, and very responsive foam that comprises the midsole of the shoe. Also to make the shoes lighter and more energy efficient for a runner, manufacturers usually go to great lengths to make the shoe’s upper (the top part of the shoe that surrounds your foot) and the shoe’s outsole (the bottom part of the shoe that touches the ground) as minimal as possible. The combination of the extra thick, trampoline-like foam, the snappy carbon plate, and the trimmed down tops and bottoms make for a very fast, light racing shoe.

Make no mistake, these shoes are technical marvels and have inspired an arms race among shoemakers that is usually reserved for F-1 racecars and golf clubs. This arms race is only outpaced by the hyperventilating marketing features and stunts that accompany the release of every iteration of the major Super Shoes.

But the proof is in the results. These shoes are rocket ships. Since they were first introduced into the running world, the world record for the marathon have plummeted. Prior to the Super Shoe era, the men’s marathon record was set in 2014 at 2:02:57; it now stands at 2:00:35. The pre-Super Shoe women’s record was set all the way back in 2005 at 2:17:42; the record has fallen several times in the Super Shoe era and now stands at 2:16:16. Indeed, based on fears of technological doping, the sport’s governing body introduced some basic rules to level the playing field, notably requiring that race-legal shoes must be available for purchase by any athlete on the open retail market and limiting the sole to 40mm thickness.

As a runner, I fully endorse the Super Shoes as products that deliver on their promise. I enjoy running and racing in them immensely. But as an aesthetic matter, I think that Super Shoes are generally suboptimal. Even allowing that function should trump form when it comes to athletic gear, I think that Super Shoes lack a certain visual appeal. In my view, they look clunky, all puffed up and riddled with odd angels, the opposite of the svelte, fast look that running shoes should strive for. This problem, I maintain, is largely driven by the fact that what makes these shoes so fast – their tall midsoles, their stripped-down uppers, and their non-existent outsoles – makes them look unbalanced.

Making matters worse, many Super Shoes are done up in all sorts of garish colorways that accentuate these inferior aesthetic features. (Indeed, my kids refer to my current set of size-13 Super Shoes, my much beloved pair of New Balance SC Elite 3s that I recently wore in the San Francisco Marathon and the Marine Corps Marathon 50K, as “Dad’s Banana Boats,” owing to their prodigious size and Big Bird-approved color palette; my kids obviously Get It™ too.)

Compare this photo of Dennis Kimetto from 2014 when he set the marathon world record with this one of Eliud Kipchoge from 2019 when he shattered the 2-hour barrier and established an unofficial record. Kimetto was wearing non-Super Adidas Adizero Adios Boost 2s. Kipchoge was wearing the then-current model of Nike’s Vaporflys, one of its Super Shoe models. The shoes in the older photo appear sleek and fast, a natural extension of the runner’s legs. The new Super Shoes look different, inflated and with a harsh geometry, characterized by an upturned and pointed heel and an angular toe.

Or as an even more extreme example, check out these Nike Alphafly 2 racers, which featured a bipartite midsole and looks like an Ace Frehley platform shoe fever dream. Fast on the feet, but sore on the eyes.

Perhaps my visual gripes are a small price to pay for running faster. I, for one, would rather run fast and comfortable miles than look good doing it, notwithstanding my kids’ critiques. But the part of me who appreciates athletic aesthetics laments the loss of my idealized view of what a running shoe should normatively look like.

With that background, let’s look at what most of the marathoners who toe the line in Paris will likely be wearing, along with my aesthetic takes. Because athlete gear is sometimes a closely guarded secret, I’ve taken my best guess as to the most likely shoes that you’ll see on the streets based on shoes worn during major races this year, so this list is not intended to be exhaustive.

Nike boasts an impressive stable of runners, and they generally wear the current versions of the Swoosh’s two Super Shoe models, the Alphafly and the Vaporfly.

Alphafly

The newest version of the Alphafly is a serious upgrade over its split-soled ancestor. While I do not in the abstract love the idea of a giant swoosh on the shoe, the ubiquitous logo functions surprisingly well here to harmonize the upper with the midsole. The porthole in the front part of the midsole seems unnecessary, but again, it tucks in nicely under the massive swoosh to create a nice parallel line. My chief complaint with the Alphafly is the heel of the shoe. I do not particularly care for the color contrasting scheme on the heel, but what really irks me is how the bottom of the heel angles so sharply and far inward, like a wedge-heeled shoe. The platform looks unstable to these eyes.

Vaporfly

The Vaporflys, by contrast, suffer from the opposite problem: not a heel that slashes inward, but one that juts outward behind the heel like a 1950s car fender. The midsole also appears to occlude the swoosh, an odd choice for Nike. And the midsole porthole on the Vaporflys is similarly superfluous here, but its placement is far less harmonious than it is with the Alphafly.

Overall, the Alphafly feels to me like the superior Nike offering from a visual standpoint.

As with Nike, Adidas’s runners will mostly wear one of the company’s two Super Shoe models, the Adizero Adios Pro 3 or the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1.

Pro 3

The Pro 3 is all sharp lines and angles. The thick triple stripe on the sides of the uppers. The midsole that harshly angles up to meet the toe box. The heel that sticks out the back and appears to make a hard turn toward the ground. There is nothing subtle about this shoe’s aesthetic. The black-and-white colorway feels brutalist, as if this shoe literally wants to chew up the pavement. Perhaps the point. A solid Super Shoe design.

Pro Evo 1

Adidas’s other offering, the Pro Evo 1, trades the sharp lines of the Pro 3 for a softer set of curves on the midsole, an upgrade by my eye. The heel on the midsole looks more cylindrical than angular, and the slope up to the toe is more gradual. But what the bottom gains in subtlety and harmony, the top loses with a dose of mega stripes. Adidas’s signature triple stripes are rendered triple wide and extend from the upper onto the midsole. This logo looks drawn with the world’s largest chisel-tipped magic marker, and it dominates the shoe’s appearance.

On, a newer shoe company, may be the one pushing the pace – and the technology envelope – in the Super Shoe technology wars in Paris. Unlike prior Super Shoe advances that mostly concerned the midsole, On has taken a novel approach to reducing the weight of the upper dramatically. Boston Marathon winner Hellen Obiri made headlines for wearing On’s new “spray-on” Super Shoes, which feature a super-light upper that is “created from a single semi-translucent synthetic monofilament almost a mile long that was extruded by a robot arm.” Alright then.

From a visual standpoint, it’s hard for me to even judge these as being in the same genus as running shoes. They don’t have laces. They don’t have a heel cap. Just an ink-jet dyed stretchy sock made out of a single fiber that is heat fused to a midsole. These shoes have company branding marks where those parts normally associated with shoes would have gone, a downgrade in my book. But I do like the mostly white color scheme with the gradient fading into the midsole. As a result, these do look more trim, more balanced, more proportioned, less angular, and sleeker than most Super Shoes. I kind of dig these, even if they feel a bit naked without the usual laces and other shoe parts.

Asics will send their runners to the start line with a shoe named in honor of the Olympics’ host city, the Metaspeed Edge Paris.

The fire engine red upper with a black company mark, standing alone, is nicely executed. I enjoy how the company’s logo flows along the side of the top part of the shoe. The midsole, however, is wanting. The heel is seriously upturned, and the red-to-white fade only highlights this sharp change in elevation. The neon/black stripe that extends from the logo on the upper also seems to change fundamentally the look of the logo itself, making it look like a sideways chevron.

Puma sponsored runners are expected to lace up in the Deviate Nitro Elite 3.

Viewed from the outstep side alone, these shoes would easily be my favorite aesthetically. I adore the Tequila Sunrise color scheme. The midsole, while puffy, feels balanced and well proportioned, and I enjoy how the black stripe anchors the midsole to the upper. But the instep side, on the other hand, is a disaster. The extremely ALL-CAPS “NITRO” is so bad it makes me laugh. It reminds me of Ricky Bobby saying, “I want to go fast.” Add in the Puma logo squeezed into the toe, and the interior half of the shoe could use some improvement.

New Balance’s marathoners will likely be wearing the company’s FuelCell SuperComp Elite v4.

This shoe’s midsole appears to swallow the rest of the shoe whole. The highly beveled midsole absolutely dominates the visual appearance of the shoe, making it look a little like the Batmobile that Christian Bale’s Batman drives in The Dark Knight. The rather abruptly angled rockering in the front and rear is accentuated by the stripe that runs down the middle of the midsole. I’m also not a huge fan of the extended forked heel that protrudes from the rear of the midsole. And while I’m a staunch New Balance supporter when it comes to my everyday training and race day footwear, the aesthetic of this shoe leaves me looking for more.

Under Armour’s Velociti Elite 2 will be the probable choice of UA’s runners in Paris.

Let’s start with the positives. The paint scheme on the midsole does a good job of lending balance to the shoe. UA has painted most of the midsole a red-to-white gradient while leaving the bottom in plain white. This scheme accomplishes a neat trick. It makes the bottom of the midsole look like a larger outsole. UA has succeeded in diminishing the marshmallow appearance endemic to Super Shoes, which I would call a huge victory. Kudos to UA for that visual accomplishment. The bad? The upper looks designed by Spider Man. Let’s just move on.

Brooks’s runners may been sporting two different models this race season, the older Hyperion Elite 4 and the newer Elite 5.

Hyperion Elite 4

The midsole on the Elite 4 is designed to accentuate the break between the piece that runs from the front of the shoe to the top of the heel and the piece that only sits under the heel. The former part is done up in a red-orange-blue fade; the latter is just blue, except for the word mark in black. The result, I feel, is muddled – the bottom just does not feel part of a unified whole. The same problem recurs on the upper. I rather enjoy the pop of red and orange on the Brooks logo itself, but the red semicircle under the heel seems misplaced and gratuitous.

Hyperion Elite 5

Former Boston Marathon champion Des Linden was reported to have run Boston this year in Brooks’s newest prototype, the Elite 5. It’s hard to get too close of a view of Des’s shoes from this photograph, but the blue colorway feels more coherent than the Elite 4’s palette. The giant Brooks wordmarks on the instep and outstep sides are prominent; I would much prefer that the Brooks logo (seen on Des’s shorts) be used instead of the wordmark, as it fits the geometry of the shoe better. Overall, though, Des’s Elite 5s are an improvement over the 4s.

I hope that you found this dive into the world of some of these Super Shoes informative and fun. I’ll be carefully reviewing the comments to this piece to see how the comm-uni-ty feels about the aesthetics of Super Shoes, those mentioned in this piece and those that I did not include. And if you enjoy this piece, maybe Phil will invite me back again some time to take a sprint through some other aspect of distance running aesthetics!

Wow. Thanks Adam — this was quite the thorough rundown! I’ll definitely be looking at the footwear during this year’s Olympic Marathon!

Readers? Do you run? If so, are you a distance runner? And do you wear any of the shoes we just previewed? Even if you don’t, we’d love to have your thoughts on the marathon “super shoes.”

…at CitiField Shea.

It was great catching up with our Founder! He’s doing well and still busy (just not writing about sports uniforms) and looked great. We spent a little time talking shop but our conversation was much less uni-oriented than usual — and we both enjoyed that!

He’ll definitely be shooting me some Biscuit & Waffles photos and news, which I’ll happily share on here.

We even ran into old pal Jon Springer (he of Mets By The Numbers fame) before the game.

Great game (Mets threw a 2-hit shutout!) and even better company.

Guess The Game…

…From The Scoreboard

Today’s scoreboard comes from Stephen Morton.

The premise of the game (GTGFTS) is simple: I’ll post a scoreboard and you guys simply identify the game depicted. In the past, I don’t know if I’ve ever completely stumped you (some are easier than others).

Here’s the Scoreboard. In the comments below, try to identify the game (date and location, as well as final score). If anything noteworthy occurred during the game, please add that in (and if you were AT the game, well bonus points for you!):

Please continue sending these in! You’re welcome to send me any scoreboard photos (with answers please), and I’ll keep running them.

Based on the suggestion of long-time reader/contributor Jimmy Corcoran, we’ve introduced a new “game” on Uni Watch, which is similar to the popular “Guess the Game from the Scoreboard” (GTGFTS), only this one asked readers to identify the game based on the uniforms worn by teams.

Like GTGFTS, readers will be asked to guess the date, location and final score of the game from the clues provided in the photo. Sometimes the game should be somewhat easy to ascertain, while in other instances, it might be quite difficult. There will usually be a visual clue (something odd or unique to one or both of the uniforms) that will make a positive identification of one and only one game possible. Other times, there may be something significant about the game in question, like the last time a particular uniform was ever worn (one of Jimmy’s original suggestions). It’s up to YOU to figure out the game and date.

Today’s GTGFTU comes from Wally Kemper.

Good luck and please post your guess/answer in the comments below.

…that’s it for the early lede. Big thanks, once again, to Adam for that terrific rundown of Super Shoes! I was today years old when I learned about those. Fun stuff!

I should have a few additional articles later today, plus Anthony’s Ticker, so be sure to keep checking back often.

Everyone have a great Wednesday, and I’ll catch you tomorrow morning.

Peace,

PH

GTGFTU: Bills def Colts 13-7 in Orchard Park 12/10/2017 in the infamous “Snow Game.”I recall the Colts who were wearing all white (Whiteout pun intended) were incredibly hard to see on TV.

I was at the game…colts were very hard to see in person. Actually, a some point even the Bills in mono red were almost impossible to see at the other end of the field and our seat were at the 35 yard line.

Awesome game. Hope to never have to go to another snow game like. So mush fun and so miserable at the same time.

We all cheered went the game went to overtime but at the same time could wait for it to be over

*couldn’t wait for it to be over

So now we have ‘Guess the game from the weather”

Hah! Funny you should mention that, because I did two posts basically on that:

link

link

GTGFTS2021 ALCS Game 318 October 2021Xander Bogaerts ends Jose Urquidy’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day (1.2 IP 6R).Sox win in a laugher 12-3, but Astros win the next 3 and the pennant 4-2.

My wife is a marathon runner. I’m really surprised that I have never seen her purchase some of the Super Shoes? She still has a certain model of Asics that is her go to. She talked me into training/running a half marathon one time. I got “fitted” for a pair of shoes. Turns out Brooks had a model that was best suited for me. These Super Shoes look very interesting and I would like to try a pair on the next time we go to a sporting goods store.

Great report on the super shoes (I kept thinking of Samuel L. Jackson in The Incredibles… “Where’s my super suit (shoes)???”). Didn’t know they were called “super shoes”. I think for me, it’s the colors that I find more objectionable than the construction. Yes, the soles and sides on the bottoms are huge and oddly shaped, but you don’t normally see them from that vantage point. Usually, you see them on the ground, on your or someone else’s feet, so the soles are not as obvious. By contrast, there’s no missing those obnoxious colors and/or designs. I noticed something similar with soccer cleats when my boys were playing. They all tended to be designed with these awful, bright colors. When I played soccer in the stone ages, cleats were black or white. So, aesthetically, it didn’t matter what your team colors were. I suppose for runners it doesn’t matter as much (you can pick your own “uni”), but I certainly would not want to wear shorts and shirts matching those nasty hues.

Reminds me of the Seinfeld episode “The Jimmy”, where Kramer is wearing shoes that look like these to help him jump higher. He goes to the dentist and gets too much nonocaine, and with these shoes is believed to be mentally challenged.

Lol, except Jimmy’s shoes had those ridiculous discs on the bottom. I could never quite figure them out.

Plyometrics! Those alone won’t help. Ppl also need to do upper body weights to aid in muscle explosiveness and core exercises.

Each of us Uni Watchers having separate field of expertise makes me feel we together form a de facto President’s Cabinet.

I’ve had a similar thought before too! Cumulatively, we should be able to know and cover everything!

Adam, what outstanding writing! Informative, funny, great references, and well paced!I wasn’t aware of the market of this sort of shoe and now I’ll be looking at feet for distance runners from now on.

In the past year I switched to Hoka shoes and their soles are so thick that I felt goofy wearing them at first, but they make such a difference for my feet that I put up with the looks the odd colors attract. Hopefully they and other manufacturers will turn down the colors some in the future.

Having done multiple marathons and halfs, these shoes really do have the effect of making you go faster, but their greatest benefit to me personally is that my legs feel fresher both during the race and the days after. Recovery seems so much easier after wearing them.

As to the visuals, I personally love the bright colors on them. I have the same Vaporflys mentioned in the article, as well as previous versions. I know they don’t really match with the rest of my race outfit, but to me they are more “fun” than solid white or black shoes. I do the same with my other running shoes as well, gravitating to more colorful versions over the standard neutral colors.

Interesting recent video as well on the Huge If True Youtube channel, where she cuts open a Vaporfly to show the different interior parts and discusses technological doping

As someone who is very into long-distance running and is also a bit of a shoe nerd, I’ve been very, very close on multiple occasions to buying a pair of Vaporflys. I’ve tried “mid-range”-priced shoes with no carbon plate during a few races (currently on a pair of Vomero 17s) and the recovery feels so much better than the $50 running shoes I started racing in more than a decade ago. The recovery on a $260+ pair of carbon plated shoes must probably feel otherworldly lol

Possibly pedantic, but I’m a distance runner in love with all things running shoes and a Nike super shoe devotee.

The picture of Kipchoge in 2019 is him in (sort of) Vaporflys and (sort of) Alphaflys. They were noted as “bespoke Vaporflys” in many reports, and they were actually the prototypes for the Alphaflys. There were rumors at the time of Nike introducing a “Vaporfly Plus” or similar, but I don’t think anyone was at all prepared for all the technology in the Alphaflys. Kipchoge was integral in the design of the Alphafly, and I think I remember him trying out some very high number of iterations over many months before the final proto and initial production version.

One other fun story is that Nike gave a pair of Alphaflys to every runner at the US Marathon Trials in February 2020. They offered blacked out versions to the runners sponsored by other brands so they could run in them and *hopefully* not get in trouble with their sponsor. That race broadcast had many minutes devoted to talking about *those Nike shoes*. They released the Alphaflys to the public not long after with all the momentum of 1:59:40, the US Trials, and the normal Nike marketing machinations.

There were no blacked-out Alphaflys at the 2020 marathon Trials, they were black with neon green logos.

At the “202One” track and field Trials they *did* offer all white with no branding versions of their track spikes to athletes with other sponsors, although very few took them up on it.

Both of these exercises were to skirt the rule that was in place from World Athletics at the time that said that shoes must be available to all competitors.

Point of order:Eliud Kipchoge wore Alphaflys in his sub-2 effort. He wore the original Vaporfly in his original sub-2 attempt sponsored by INEOS, but by the time he actually did the deed, he was in Alphaflys.