A comparison of running economy across seven highly cushioned racing shoes with carbon-fibre plates

Abstract

Recent advancements in running shoe technology, particularly in the Nike Vaporfly, have been shown to improve running economy. Other brands have now also developed new, advanced shoes with thicker midsole foams intended to be more compliant and resilient, along with a carbon-fibre plate. However, none of these new shoes have been compared to the Vaporfly in terms of running economy. Therefore, we compared running economy among seven different highly cushioned racing shoes with a carbon plate: Hoka Rocket X (Hoka RX), Saucony Endorphin Pro (Saucony EP), Nike Alphafly (Nike AF), Asics Metaspeed Sky (Asics MS), Nike Vaporfly Next % 2 (Nike VF2), New Balance RC Elite (New Bal RC), Brooks Hyperion Elite 2 (Brooks HE2) and 1 traditional racing shoe: Asics Hyperspeed (Asics HS) in twelve male runners (5k best: 16.0 ± 0.7 min) during two lab visits. Shoes were tested in a random sequence over 8 × 5-min trials (16 km·h⁻¹; 5-min rest between trials) on visit 1, and in the reverse/mirrored order for visit 2. Metabolic and running mechanics data were collected and averaged across visits. V̇O₂ (ml·kg⁻¹·min⁻¹; % change from Asics HS) was significantly different across shoes. Hoka RX (51.67 ± 2.07) and Brooks HE2 (51.42 ± 1.72) did not differ from Asics HS (51.71 ± 2.02). While Saucony EP (50.93 ± 1.82; −1.48 ± 0.72%) and New Bal RC (50.99 ± 1.83; −1.37 ± 0.78%) were statistically better than Asics HS, they were inferior to Nike AF (50.13 ± 1.86; −3.03 ± 1.48%), Nike VF2 (50.29 ± 1.72; −2.72 ± 1.02%), and Asics MS (50.39 ± 1.71; −2.52 ± 1.08%). From these data, it appears most running shoe companies have not yet caught up to the advantages conferred by the Nike VF2.

Keywords:

• Distance running
• endurance performance
• road racing
• super shoes
• footwear

Acknowledgements

The authors thank all of the runners who traveled across the state to participate in the study, and Eric Jones, Clint Anders, Brian Hart, Jonathan Oliver, and Andreas Kreutzer for providing feedback on the manuscript. We are especially grateful to Ari Perez of Fleet Feet (Austin, TX, USA) for assistance in acquiring the shoes purchased for the study.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflict of interest. All shoes used for the study were purchased and no funding was provided by any shoe company.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by an internal grant (FRG-RPS 2021-022) from the Office of Research and Graduate Studies at Stephen F. Austin State University.