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Supershoes are reshaping distance running

Kenyan runners, like many others, are grappling with the impact of expensive, high-performance shoes.

Research has shown that to be incorrect: while the plate may add some energy-­saving stiffness, says Wouter Hoogkamer, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, its main benefit appears to be in stabilizing the technology’s most vital component: a thick midsole material made from a foamed polymer known as polyether block amide, or PEBA. Not only is this foam light; tests in 2017 at Hoogkamer’s lab, then at the University of Colorado, Boulder, found that a Vaporfly prototype stored and returned significantly more energy than the leading marathon shoes at the time: the EVA-soled Nike Streak and the Adidas Boost, made with a thermoplastic polyurethane. Not only do they enable faster workouts, says Benson Kipruto, a club member who won the Tokyo Marathon in March and finished second to Kiptum in Chicago last fall; the softer foams also promote quicker recovery—to the point where the day after a hard session, “your legs are a bit fresh.”

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