Just two weeks ago, the running world was left reeling when Tigst Assefa smashed the women’s marathon world record at the Berlin Marathon in a time of 2:11:53. On her feet? A pair of the newly released Adidas super shoe, the Adizero Adios Evo Pro 1. Assefa was even pictured proudly raising the shoe above her head and kissing it on the finish line.
‘This is the lightest racing shoe I have ever worn,’ she said before the race. ‘The feeling of running in them is an incredible experience – like nothing I’ve felt before’.
It felt like Adidas had finally got one up on Nike, the pioneers in the super shoe war that's been bubbling since 2016 when the Vaporfly 4% was released.
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But now, just two weeks later, Nike has hit back. At this weekend’s Chicago Marathon, Kelvin Kiptum broke the men’s marathon record in an astonishing time of 2:00:35.
The 23-year-old raced in a pair of the new Nike Dev 163 prototype shoes, which are legal under World Athletics rules. And, on Tuesday, Nike confirmed these shoes are in fact the Alphafly 3, on sale in January 2024.
Sifan Hasan, who won the women’s race and secured a course record at Chicago in the second fastest time in history was also wearing a pair. Benson Kipruto, who finished second in the men's race, was over three minutes behind Kiptum in the Adios Evo Pro 1.
As the world record creeps closer to that elusive sub-2, it feels in many ways like the world of marathon racing has become as much a battle of technology as endurance.
Indeed, after Kipchoge's sub-2 hour marathon challenge in 2019, World Athletics engaged in a consultation process which resulted in the formulation of the Athletic Shoe Regulations. This contains a number of principles, one of which states that:
- performances (including records) in athletics are achieved through the primacy of human endeavour over technology in athletic shoes and advances in the same (e.g. to allow for meaningful competition)
In recent months, this 'primacy of human endeavour over technology' element has been debated, with many arguing that super shoes obviously significantly aid performance.
Shoes must also comply with a number of criteria, including having a sole no thicker than 40mm and no more than one rigid structure (such as a carbon fibre plate). And – perhaps most controversially – the shoe must be available for purchase by competitors, and have been available for purchase for at least one month. That is, unless a different timeframe is approved by the World Athletics CEO or his nominee. In the case of the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1, the shoe became available for purchase on 14 September 2023 (albeit with extremely limited stock and for an eye-watering price of £400), so it's likely that a different time frame was approved.
The Alphafly 3 (aka the Nike Dev 163) is not currently for public sale, but it's been approved by World Athletics for developmental use until December 2023.
Whether you agree or disagree with them, the war of the super shoes is well and truly on – and we see no sign of a ceasefire just yet.
