Supershoes for 2024 – A Changing Retail Landscape

Leading brands like Nike, Puma, and New Balance recently showcased their latest high-end models at The Running Event in Austin, Texas. These super shoes are designed with advanced technology to enhance athletic performance, and recent releases include Puma’s Fast-R Nitro Elite 2, New Balance’s FuelCell SuperComp Pacer v2, and Nike’s Alphafly 3. The speed gains come pretty much exclusively from the use of carbon sole inserts and next-generation sole foam despite how the brands may want to dress this up. Both of those ‘technologies’ are now limited and regulated by World Athletics.

Kipchoge Marathon Record: Inside The Numbers with Coros & Supersapiens

The trend of super shoes gained momentum after Nike-sponsored Eliud Kipchoge broke the 2-hour marathon barrier in 2019, leading to major brands developing shoes that give ‘free speed’. Notable achievements, such as Tigist Assefa’s women’s world record and Kelvin Kiptum’s men’s world record, further fueled the popularity of these high-performance shoes.

Tigist Assefa wears adidas Pro EVO supershoes in Marathon record plus an old Garmin

Speciality running retailers are increasingly more reliant on super shoes as a key element of their business profitability, especially during race season, although the significance varies based on the number of  advanced and elite-level runners in the stores’ catchment area (physical and digital)

Kelvin Kiptum Marathon World Record – Chicago with Nike + Garmin

The brands themselves now face significant opportunities. Super shoes are in demand from a large and growing number of runners. Even better: the shoes have a limited race life. £$£$£$

Nike Vaporfly 3

I believe that the material gains from recent innovation are over. It’s now up to the brands to do their marketing, make some money, save with manufacturing costs and tinker at the edges for minuscule performance gains. New Balance’s Pacer V2 boasts a mixed materials sole and might be an example of this. The mixed material sole is probably just a way to save money whilst still giving some of the free speed benefits.

Science: Nike Alphafly is fastest running shoe…

Take Out.

If you are the sort of person that is going to spend a lot of money to run a bit faster then you’ll probably be able to spend $/£100 more or $/200 more than the current retail price levels. I don’t know where the price ceiling is for a shoe that can prove it is the best (like AlphaFly).

Running Economy: Super Shoes vs Crocs

If you’ve not yet got some super shoes, here’s a tip for you. On Christmas Eve for the last two years, Nike has been almost giving away VaporFly shoes. Well if ‘giving away’ means £120 then they’re giving them away. That’s half-price and only a bit more expensive than many regular/inferior shoes. You won’t get them delivered for your Christmas present on the 25th but you’ll be running in them before New Year. I don’t know if the same thing will happen again this year but it could be worth waiting.

Supershoes: PEBA vs EVA after 300 miles, which deteriorates?

• Performance: These shoes WILL make you 1-3% faster (do the math…it’s a lot). The magnitude depends on your current levels of speed/force and your gait. For me, I think it’s the PEBAX/PEBA foam that makes me faster, elite runners might also get additional benefits from the energy return from the higher deflection they apply to the carbon plates
• Longevity: These shoes can and do last for many 100s of miles like regular running shoes. They tend to be a bit more fragile though. The key point is that their performance seems to degrade within the first 100 miles or so of use ie you would then buy a new pair for races and demote the original shoe to regular training

For 2024 I see every performance brand jumping on the marketing bandwagon along with a few other brands pretending to offer super shoes. It should be a good year for the brands and shoe retailers.

Be careful which particular company’s marketing you fall for. Not all super shoes are created equal.

I suspect that we have almost reached the peak of the innovation curve with the materials currently used and the methods those materials are integrated into shoe construction. Put another way…the super-fast guys are not going to get much faster. However, further down the pecking order, the likes of you and me could benefit from a better understanding by the brands of how to tailor the technologies they have for the way we run,

Me: I’m really NOT a Nike fan but I trust their super shoes to perform and have several pairs of Vaporfly/AlphaFly. I’ll use them for A races. adidas seems OK, so I’ll continue to experiment with them for general training and B races in 2024.