By: Bryan Tan

In 2016, Nike invented Super Shoes, and with it, an explosion of new records for all kinds of running sports.

According to The New York Times, this is what happened some years after the invention:

“In the spring, the University of Washington track team produced eight sub-four-minute milers. In June alone, four high school runners broke that barrier in the same race. On the professional circuit, three world records were shattered within a week in Paris in June: Faith Kipyegon of Kenya set a new record in both the women’s 1,500 meters and 5,000 meters, and Lamecha Girma of Ethiopia set a new mark in the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase.”

This raises the question, what exactly is so special about these Super Shoes?

These special carbon fiber plated shoes have a 3%-4% energy preservation rate, which means it returns that percentage of the energy released into running.

They almost feel like a trampoline. It’s as if the shoes are pushing you forward with every step.

“Because the shoes are a new tool, the more we run in them, the better we adapt,” said Geoff Burns, a physiologist and biomechanics expert in the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

He believes in the specificity principle, for a runner to achieve their best performance, they have to train the same way they would race in the competition. This means running the same speed, eating the same gel, and running in the same shoes.

Others believe in the “Nietzsche principle”: what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Runners using this method train in normal running shoes, so that when they use the super shoes, they get a super boost.

Although these shoes give the runners a boost, researchers have found that super shoes also make for more injuries.

“I’ve seen super-shoe injuries in runners at all levels — high school runners, recreational runners and elite athletes,” Saxena, a leading researcher in running injuries says. “The shoes can put atypical stresses on the bones and soft-tissue structures.”

However, there are no reviews of super shoes causing injuries, specifically. No convincing studies have been made that the biomechanics are much different in super shoes compared to regular running shoes.

So for now… Three, two, one, RUN!