Running Shoes

Nike Vaporfly Next%

Can someone please explain to me why running competitive marathons with these shoes (Nike Vaporfly Next%) is so controversial?

Here’s the way I see it:

People used to run barefoot. Then shoes were invented. Then running shoes were created. They dramatically improved performance.

Shoe uppers transitioned from leather to canvas to synthetics to algorithmically generated 3D printed variable density weaves. Outsoles evolved from leather to rubber. Midsoles changed from rubber to materials like foam and gel and air.

Kinesiologists optimized shoe geometry. Materials scientists optimized the materials that the shoes were constructed from. All the while, shoes slowly but steadily got lighter, faster, and more efficient.

And then one day Nike made a breakthrough. They put a carbon fiber plate in the midsole and incrementally increased running efficiency the same way it has been increased for nearly two centuries and all of a sudden the running world shit a brick. People cried foul and complained of cheating and made comparisons to performance enhancing drugs.

Nike didn’t create a secret new technology and hide it from everyone except for a few select runners. They put a shoe on the market that anyone can buy and run in (unless you happen to be contractually obligated to a shoe company whose shoes aren’t as good.) Every athletic shoe company is trying to make a better shoe to increase performance. Nike succeeded and everyone started complaining that it was destroying the sport. Am I missing something here?

I was a competitive skier when parabolic skis started to become popular. One year, a few skiers had parabolic skis and they outperformed everyone else on the slope. We didn’t bitch and moan that it was destroying the sport. The next year everyone had parabolic skis and got back to racing. Parabolic skis moved the sport forward and allowed us all to ski better than we had before. Why should running be different?