Can this £285 super shoe make you a faster runner?

In 1978, Frank Rudy walked into Nike with an idea. The former NASA ­aeronautical engineer believed using air pockets in the soles of running shoes would improve ­performance. He had failed to convince 23 ­previous shoe ­companies, but Nike felt differently. Almost 50 years later, Rudy’s idea has led to an arms race of “super” shoes.

The Nike Tailwind that made its debut at the Honolulu Marathon the same year Rudy pitched to Nike looked ­nothing like today’s shoes. Every major brand now has its own super shoe, with Nike, Adidas, Brooks, Asics, Puma, On and New Balance all ­represented in the elite field. The efficacy of super shoes depends on the type of foam used, the design of the ­material on top of the foot (known as the upper) and the use of air pockets.

Nike’s original shoe with a carbon plate inside was called the Vaporfly 4%, based on a study done by the University of Colorado that showed they reduced the amount of energy used to run by that precise figure.

The design was a huge shift from the received wisdom that elite marathoners should wear racing flats with minimal cushioning.

It was when they were helping Eliud Kipchoge become the first person to run a marathon in under two hours that Nike revisited airpods. These are plastic bubbles, filled with air, in the sole of a trainer. They were part of some of Nike’s most iconic designs, such as the Air Max trainer, but had not been used in running shoes for many years. The idea was that by replacing some of the foam in the Vaporfly with airpods, they could increase the energy return even more.

Kipchoge wore the Alphafly prototypes on a dry day in Vienna in 2019 when he ran a marathon in 1:59:40.2.

There had been claims of technological doping, especially from athletes not sponsored by Nike, until other brands developed their own super shoes.

World Athletics has also introduced rules on the thickness of the foam in soles, and limits them to just one carbon plate. This has not put off brands from developing so-called ‘illegal’ super shoes. Puma’s Fast RB Nitro Elite has a 58mm stack height and includes three different pieces of carbon fibre.

It is not just elite athletes who are using super shoes. Thousands of amateur runners will wear the same technology on race day, although it is not cheap to do so. While the original Nike Vaporfly 4% retailed at £210, you can now expect to pay £285 for the top-of-the-range Nike Alphafly 3.

Do not expect them to last you long, either. Most of these shoes perform at their best for only two to four marathons. That is nothing compared with the Adidas Adizero Pro Evo 1, however. That retails at £449.99 and is recommended to be worn only once.