Are Nike's Vaporfly Running Shoes "Too Good?"
Running records have been falling at a blistering pace lately. Eliud Kipchoge ran the first official sub-2 hour marathon in Vienna in October 2019, which was considered (like the sub-4-minute mile) a time mark that could not be broken. That same week, Brigid Kosgei set a new world record in the women's event in the 2019 Chicago marathon, beating the old one by 81 seconds. The common denominator? A brand of shoe.
When legendary Oregon track coach Bill Bowerman started pouring rubber on his wife's waffle iron in the mid-1960s to make the first shoe dedicated to running events, he soon after formed a company with one of his athletes, Phil Knight, that eventually became Nike (NYSE: NKE). The shoe company has been at the bleeding edge of the running market ever since. Nike's efforts, along with such colorful running personalities as Steve Prefontaine, helped launch the jogging revolution of the 1970s.
Since then, running shoes have increased in quality and performance, and some have even been game-changers. Now it appears we have another technological jump that is so good it is causing the governing body of track -- World Athletics -- to consider banning or restricting the shoe because it allegedly gives an unfair advantage.
Source Fool.com
