SNEAKS RACE TO THE TOP
Super shoes changing the sport
When Mary Lynch will run her third New York City Marathon on Sunday, she’s hoping her Hoka Rocket X 2 super shoes will help propel her to her first sub-3hour finish.
“I have never run a marathon in them,” Lynch (left), 25, who works in finance and lives in Manhattan, told
The Post. “You see the pros wearing them.
It’s a very seductive [promise].”
Super shoes were first introduced by Nike in 2016 as an un- named prototype for elite runners, and were later christened the Vaporfly 4%. Now, the high-tech sneakers — which have a carbon fiber plate embedded in a lightweight foam midsole, helping to propel a runner forward with less effort — have trickled down to everyday athletes.
Run for your money
“I don’t know a single runner who isn’t interested in this sneaker,” running coach Zandy Mangold told The Post. “The shoes improve your running economy, which basically means they allow you to run the same pace at an easier effort.”
Nearly every major manufacturer now offers their spin on the trend — for a price.
The Vaporfly costs $260, Hoka’s Rocket X 2 is $250 and, in September, Adidas released the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1, which sells for a cool $500.
The 521 pairs Adidas initially made available sold out “in a matter of minutes,” per CNN.
Studies have found that runners can see a 1% to 3% increase in their speed while wearing the shoes — and the faster the pace, the bigger the gains. Ethiopian long-distance runner Tigst Assefa competed in September’s Berlin Marathon in Adizeros and smashed the women’s world record by more than 2 minutes with a time of 2 hours, 11 minutes, 53 seconds.
At the Chicago Marathon in October, Kelvin Kiptum of Kenya set a men’s world record of 2 hours, 35 seconds while wearing a prototype of the Nike Alphafly 3 sneakers.
But the hyped shoes aren’t without controversy. They’ve been called “technological doping” — and in 2021, World Athletics, an international governing body for running events, ruled that they must adhere to certain physical specifications, such as the sole being no thicker than 40 mm.
And, medical professionals say they’re not a good option for everyone.
Mandy Fox, a physical therapist at Finish Line PT in Chelsea, advises people to build up a baseline of calf muscles and strengthen tendons before running in super shoes, lest they lead to tendon pain or plantar fasciitis.
“Because of the stacked height and plate, they are less stable shoes,” she explained.