Running shoes that will go the extra mile

JOGGERS tired of how quickly their trainers wear out are to get hi-tech help to pound the streets for longer.

Scientists have developed running shoes incorporating graphene – a ‘miracle material’ 200 times stronger than steel but a millionth the thickness of a human hair.

Trainers with graphene added to the rubber soles are claimed to last 50 per cent longer and give runners a better grip. Researchers at the University of Manchester, where the world’s thinnest material was first isolated in 2004, have developed the shoes in collaboration with British sportswear brand inov-8.

They will go on sale next year priced at around £150 a pair. Dr Aravind Vijayaraghavan, reader in nanomaterials at the University of Manchester, said: ‘Graphene is extraordinarily flexible, and can be bent, twisted, folded and stretched without incurring any damage.’

Graphene, which consists of layers of carbon one atom thick, is produced from graphite, a form of coal used in pencils and lubricants. It has already been used in sports cars, aircraft and medical devices.