Puma puts ’supershoe’ to test in New York marathon

Performance-enhancing footwear has, until now, been the preserve of Nike and Adidas. So the results gathered since the spring launch of the Puma Fast-R3 have caused excitement – and some surprise – in the world of competitive running.

Athletes wearing the foam-soled trainers took part in the Boston and London marathons in April as part of Puma’s Project3, with a goal of completing the race in less than three hours. Puma said more than a third of the marathon runners set a new personal best while wearing the Fast-R3.

Supposed ”supershoes” stepped into the spotlight during the 2016 Rio Olympics, when Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge won gold in the marathon while wearing a disguised prototype of the Nike Vaporfly. The trainers were lighter than standard models and used specially developed foam soles to provide added bounce, as well as a carbon-fibre plate to propel the foot forward.

But, despite sports brands regularly working on new products, there had been a ”plateau” in the advantages offered by new high-performance running shoes, according to a joint study published last year by Puma and the University of Massachusetts.

The researchers presented data that showed the Fast-R3 gave runners a significant advantage compared with Puma’s former models, plus shoes made by Nike and Adidas.

Wouter Hoogkamer, assistant professor of kinesiology, who worked on the study, said to the New York Times’s Athletic sports news website: ”For a range of different people, everybody we tested – on top of all the people that Puma tested in their lab – they all do better… That’s why this is the next big thing.”

Photograph by Andrés Kudacki / AP