Let’s just call it advanced footwear technology (AFT)

One would have to go back more than a decade to the Minimal/Barefoot movement to find another footwear trend that has captured the imagination of runners and spawned as much intense research interest as Advanced Footwear Technology (AFT) shoes. This term refers to running shoes made with stiff moderators sandwiched between layers of resilient foams and with pronounced sagittal-plane rocker profiles. These shoes have also been referred to as Plated shoes, 4% shoes, SuperShoes, Neoteric shoes, Carbon-Fiber shoes, Ergogenic shoes, and so on. This ever-expanding hunt for a term that defines this technology is a point of confusion in the literature that we should rectify.

In a search for consensus, we reached out to a group of 16 experts who are actively engaged in researching or developing this type of footwear. No less than 21 names were suggested and discussed. Of these 21 terms, at least seven have already appeared in the literature.

As it is with most collective decisions, there does not seem to be a clear choice but more of a consensus around what not to do. For example, no brand or product names; no meaningless superlatives; avoid being boxed in by mentioning specific material choices; and, don’t refer to unproven mechanisms.

At the end of the day, we need to pick something definitive but open-ended enough to allow for the evolution of the concept underlying this technology. We suggest Advanced Footwear Technology (AFT) as the easiest and least objectionable choice. AFT is currently in use by World Athletics and has been the term of choice in published accounts of research on these shoes.

Advanced Footwear Technology (AFT) - a performance-enhancing footwear technology that combines lightweight, resilient midsole foams with rigid moderators and pronounced rocker profiles in the sole.

The above definition incorporates the spirit of many of the comments shared by these experts. In time, we hope AFT is widely adopted and used to specify this unique type of footwear as well as the integrated technology.

Leading off this issue of Footwear Science are three Perspectives articles, each taking a slightly divergent look at where we need to focus as we look deeper into the mystery of how AFT works to enhance performance. As a final gesture of farewell to our current era of confused nomenclature, each Perspective article uses slightly different terminology to describe AFT shoes.