Technological advances in elite marathon performance

There is scientific and legal controversy about recent technological advances in performance running shoes that reduce the energetic cost of running and may provide a distinct competitive advantage. To better understand the potential performance-enhancing effects of Nike’s pioneering marathon racing shoes, we examined the finishing times and racing shoes of the top 50 male and 50 female runners from the World Marathon Major series in the 2010s — before and after the introduction of new Nike shoe models (4%, NEXT%, Alphafly, and other prototypes; herein referred to as neoteric Nikes). Data for racing shoes were available for 3,886 of the 3,900 performances recorded at the four annual marathons in Boston, London, Chicago, and New York. In full cohort analyses, marathon finishing times were 2.0% or 2.8 min (138.5 ± 8.1 min vs. 141.3 ± 7.4 min, P

The research analyzes marathon finishing times with and without neoteric Nike shoes.