For many tuning into the Boston Marathon on April 17, 2023, it was expected to be a chance to watch another Eliud Kipchoge masterclass.
However, the 37 year old — who was wearing an unseen colorway of the new Nike Alphafly 2 — broke his own marathon world record in Berlin last year, but fell drastically off the pace at just over halfway this time around to come through 7th overall in just under 2 hours 10 mins. Not bad, in hindsight.
The Kenyan’s below par performance turned out to be one of many from the Nike Alphafly entourage, which resulted in the unfamiliar sight of only one athlete (Israel’s Lonah Salpeter) finishing in the top three of either the men’s or women’s races wearing the once all-conquering Swoosh.
This time around on the men’s side it was all about adidas' three stripes, as Evans Chebet (2:05:54) led all three podium finishers through wearing adidas adizero adios PRO 3.
In the women’s race it was On Running’s Helen Obiri who came through with the win, clocking 2:21:38 in an unseen pair of prototypes, similar to that of the Swiss label’s Cloudboom silhouette.
The super shoe debate has been ongoing since Nike introduced them to the market back in 2017.
For those not au fait, the term super shoe refers to a performance-focused running sneaker which houses carbon-fiber technology to improve running economy, while in turn reducing the amount of output needed from a runner. In layman's terms: they make you faster, for longer.
Following the introduction of Nike’s first Vaporfly nearly six years ago, the world of running has changed dramatically, with near-on every performance label having its own variation of the super shoe.
Up until the last few years, podiums across the world had been dominated by Nike, but more recently brands like New Balance, On, and, most pertinently, adidas have joined the party, with the latter now arguably sharing Nike’s limelight.
The 127th edition of the Boston Marathon is a prime example of adidas’ rise in the world of running and, ahead of the London Marathon next week, spices things up when it comes to the battle of the super shoes, at least.
