Breaking into ‘Super Shoes’ — the benefits and ethics of carbon-plated racing footwear

Now, I have run in a couple of them in super shoes, and clocked my personal best too. I am no Kipchoge, but these racing shoes combine a bouncy lightweight midsole foam with a carbon fiber plate to create a light and springy response, reducing the amount of work a runner must put in to run at a certain speed, and several pairs of these shoes have helped me achieve my best race times.

The same race effort a runner puts in using normal running shoe will result in a faster pace when using in a carbon-plated shoe. Carbon-plated running shoes have a thin carbon-fibre plate embedded in the midsole foam of the shoe. The carbon-fibre plate works together with the foam in the shoes to act almost like a springboard to propel the wearer forward. When that propulsion is combined with speed, runners experience an increase in running efficiency, which leads to faster times. In a sport where every second counts, any advantage is welcome and will be sought after.

This has ensured that carbon-plated shoes have become the rage in the running community — they are a common sight at any given race.

Adidas, along with Nike, has been a frontrunner in this ‘super shoe' race. The Adizero range, which started as a fast-racing flat, has evolved into a super shoe with responsive foam and carbon-infused rods in the midsole. What these carbon infused rods do is make the shoe less rigid at the midsole as compared to shoes with carbon-plate at the midsole. Hence the entire Adizero Pro editions have carbon infused rods at the midsole.

You don't need to be an elite runner to experience the benefits of racing in carbon-plated shoes. While many of these shoes only display their full potential at speed, most super shoes provide efficiency gains that any runner can benefit from.

That said, most carbon-plated shoes are best suited for serious runners who want to run fast and prioritise finishing times. In general, many sports scientists — and even physios — advise runners to gradually introduce carbon-plated shoes to their training routine. Compared with non-carbon-fibre-plated shoes, these shoes put a different kind of load on the leg muscles and areas around shin bone and ankle, which may cause stress and eventually lead to injury.

Hence, it is important to give our bodies the opportunity to adapt to this footwear. Since the promise is to make you faster, it is imperative to try using them for short-tempo runs before gradually building up to longer distances.

What I do with these is mix them up with my regular shoes — to avoid being too reliant on them and then definitely save them for my race day.

In January 2020, the International Amateur Athletic Federation, or IAAF — now known as World Athletics — released a memorandum with updated rules as to what constitutes ‘acceptable shoes’ for races. There were two main updates in the list. Firstly, a shoe could not have more than one carbon plate or similar material unless it was to attach spikes to the outer sole of the shoe. And the second one was that a shoe’s sole could not be more than four centimetres in thickness.

Immediately after Nike showcased its carbon plated shoe, runners began to question the ethics of such technology. Many argued that running is a test of fitness, not of technology.

The world saw high-profile athletes setting records with Nike’s shoes. Immediately, after Kipchoge’s first ‘Breaking 2’ marathon attempt, Kenya's Brigid Kosgei beat Paula Radcliffe’s long-standing world marathon record, and running legend Mo Farah won the London Half Marathon in Nike’s shoes. But all these wins brought to the fore an ethical issue — the term ‘technological doping’ was coined. New rules came out just in time for the Tokyo Olympics — not all carbon-plated shoes were banned, and the Nike shoes which were really at the centre of this entire debate were allowed under the single-plate rules.

But even today, certain shoes that do give their wearers a competitive advantage stand banned from certain endurance events and competitions. For example, if you do take a look at the Ironman page, you will see Adidas Adizero Prime X and Adizero Prime X Strung, Asics SUPERBLAST and New Balance FuelCell SuperComp Trainer are not allowed at the Ironman events.

While it might be important to take a note of these banned shoes, at the same time, it is crucial to note that not all carbon-plated shoes are banned or bad, and nor they do give you some competitive advantage.