“Why that would be important for energy is easy to imagine,” Wouter Hoogkamer, the lead author on the study, told Runner’s World. Using 3-D biomechanical stride analysis and force plates, the researchers examined how the runners’ gaits (the way they moved their limbs) and ground force reactions (how hard their feet were hitting the ground) differed between the shoes.īased on previous studies where runners bent their knees less on extra-compliant (i.e., “squishy”) treadmills than on normal treadmills, the researchers expected that runners wearing the Vaporflys-which have extra-compliant foam-would bend their knees less. Published late last year in Sports Medicine, this study involved 10 male competitive runners doing 5-minute intervals in each of the same three shoes as their running economy study: Vaporfly, Zoom Streak, and Adios Boost. The University of Colorado Boulder scientists who originally verified that the Vaporflys work as promised followed up with a study looking at how the components of the shoes -namely the carbon fiber plate and special ZoomX midsole foam-actually save runners 4 percent energy. Instead, the analysis suggests that, in a race between two marathoners of the same ability, a runner wearing Vaporflys would have a real advantage over a competitor not wearing them.” How do the Nike Vaporflys actually work? “We found that the difference was not explained by faster runners choosing to wear the shoes, by runners choosing to wear them in easier races or by runners switching to Vaporflys after running more training miles. Also, runners of the same caliber were more likely to hit a PR wearing the Vaporflys than other shoes. In their analysis of half a million marathon and half-marathon race times posted to Strava (along with the shoes the runners were wearing), reporters Kevin Quealy and Josh Katz confirmed the 4 percent claim. That means, you guessed it, the average improvement was around 4 percent.īut a question remained: How do these shoes work in the real world with real runners? One of the more comprehensive analytical deep dives was done by The New York Times in 2018. Some runners’ running economy-or the energy needed to run at a given pace-improved by as little as 1.59 percent, while others improved by as much as 6.26 percent. In the study, every one of the 18 runners tested at the University of Colorado Boulder’s “Locomotion Lab” had better running economy in the Vaporflys than when they ran in two other racing shoe models (Nike Zoom Streak 6 and Adidas Adios Boost 2). One of the first studies that looked at the Vaporfly 4% was done in 2017 and published by the journal Sports Medicine. So for all the skeptics out there, here is a look at what we already know about the biomechanics of the Vaporfly 4% shoes, along with the latest answers to your most burning questions. In early tests, research has shown that these shoes can improve running economy by 4 percent, but the $250 shoes continue to be put to the test in labs to find out how they make runners more efficient and faster.Īnd ever since the 4% shoes made their debut for Nike’s Breaking2 project, runners have wondered whether they are only made to help the likes of Eliud Kipchoge set world records, or if they can help the average Joe for every type of pace. If you’re a running skeptic, there’s a chance you look at Nike’s Vaporfly 4% shoes with some suspicion.
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