When Nike was hyping the launch of its Vaporfly 4% running shoe in 2017, there was some skepticism about the company’s claims of having invented a product that would dramatically improve running economy. As it turned out, however, all the noise about the ur-super shoe was empirically validated; athletes of every level who wore it were suddenly running faster times. Clock don’t lie. Soon, every major running shoe company developed a premium racer whose design seemed to follow the blueprint of offsetting max cushioning with a stiff plate. For better or worse, it was impossible to deny that Nike had spawned an industry-wide shift in racing shoes.
The company makes a point of emphasizing how much this seismic innovation is indebted to input from elite athletes. The Vaporfly has a tweaked version of one of Nike’s slogans printed on its upper, informing us that it’s been “Engineered to the exact specifications of world-class runners.” On the one hand there’s nothing particularly new or unusual about this. Most shoe brands work with their sponsored elites for product testing, and at Nike the practice has its…
