Nike’s lightning shoes hint at power of technology to skew elite competition

Do you know the most remarkable thing about Nike’s £200 Vaporfly Elite trainers? They actually live up to the hype. When the shoe was launched last year, Nike insisted it improved running economy by an average of 4% – a claim so astounding that it caused many sports scientists’ eyebrows to rise in scepticism, loosely aping the company’s swoosh logo.

However last week, the New York Times, having analysed 495,000 marathon and half-marathon times since 2014 using data from Strava, reached a similar conclusion. Runners who wore Vaporflys, which have a controversial carbon-fibre plate in their soles, did indeed run 3-4% quicker on average than similar runners wearing other shoes, and around 1% faster than those using the next speediest shoe.

Your first instinct might be to rush out and buy a pair – especially as a separate study in the journal Sports Medicine on elite athletes estimated that the shoes could take six minutes off a three-hour marathoner’s time. Good luck with that. The shoes appear to be almost permanently sold out, and often go for double their retail price on eBay.

A more pressing task is to ask whether the shoes – and other forms of cutting-edge technology – go too far. Do they, in effect, turn what is supposed to be a level playing field in one that more resembles the slope of the Eiger?

A case can be made that the Vaporflys have already created at least one major sliding-doors moment in elite sport. Roger Pielke Jnr, the director of the sports governance centre at the University of Colorado Boulder, notes that in the 2016 US Olympic marathon trials, Kara Goucher finished in fourth – missing out on the plane to Rio by just one place. Yet the winner, Amy Cragg, along with the third-placed runner, Shalane Flanagan, were both wearing early prototypes of the Vaporflys, which he believes could have made all the difference to the result.

“It is highly likely that Goucher is the first known athlete to miss the Olympics due to shoe technology,” says Pielke. “The mean improvement of Nike Vaporfly for women and fastest runners is around 2%. Put Goucher into Vaporflys in the 2016 US marathon trials, and she gets a spot if they improve her performance by only 0.7%.”

The kicker? If Goucher had not left the Nike Oregon Project after raising concerns about its use of TUEs and thyroid medication, she may indeed have been wearing those shoes.
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So where should we draw the line? On the one hand you cannot blame companies for striving to break new ground. They have profits to chase, consumers to satisfy, competitors breathing down their neck. We want these products, too. Only the most masochistic of runners attempts marathons in bare feet or old‑school trainers.

The International Association of Athletics Federations, the world governing body, also insists that Nike’s game-changing shoe meets all its requirements and “does not require any special inspection or approval”. Yet elite competition also requires a semblance of fairness. At some point the IAAF will have to rule on the permissible amount of energy return allowed from cushioning materials and whether carbon‑fibre devices in midsoles should be banned.

Such discussions stretch beyond track and field. In 2009, the sports governing body of swimming, Fina, banned the LZR Racer swimsuit because it was said to reduce skin friction drag by 24%. Yet in other sports the rules appear a little looser. Take British Cycling’s skinsuits, which they have used at Olympic Games since 2008 and are said to improve performance by up to 7%. That is a colossal advantage – yet the UCI has ruled they are legal.

Some inside the system concede that it would take other nations vast sums to replicate such technology. Elite competition is about winning, they point out, and if the rules permit the skinsuits what is the problem? Similar technology was also used to help Team GB win three skeleton medals in Pyeongchang – much to the delight of the nation.

Yet it is only natural to also feel a bit queasy about this, because it means that a cyclist from a smaller nation has almost no chance of an Olympic medal in a track sprint. While they will wear an off-the-peg skinsuit, British cyclists will have been 3D-laser scanned before being provided with suits made with cutting-edge materials, including polyurethane derivatives.

Those suits will, crucially, contain near-invisible “trips” that disrupt the flow of air and create a turbulence effect that reduces the amount of wind resistance acting on the body.

All this can get very thorny. At London 2012, most supported the Paralympian Oscar Pistorius being allowed to race wearing carbon fibre limbs – even though respected sports scientists, such as Ross Tucker, were pointing out that it enabled him to use 20% less force than able-bodied athletes to run at the same speeds.

When I spoke to someone who uses the Vaporfly Elites they raved about them providing more “bounce and forward momentum” and said they also helped them go faster for longer. “Oddly you feel them most when standing still or walking in them,” they said. “They tip you forward slightly so it’s like you are always just about to ‘take off’ at speed.”

But now we know how well the shoes work, is it time to power down their afterburners?

Should you take your shoes off inside the house?

My brother is a fastidious shoes-off-er. I visited him recently and, within a couple of minutes, he gestured at my feet in horror. “What are those?” he asked. “These?” I replied, pointing to my trainers. “I bought them onli–” “No!” he yelled. “What are they doing on in my house?”

This is the best way to divide people. There are those who despise the thought of rubber on carpet, who lie awake panicking because wearing outdoors shoes indoors upsets the natural order of things. Then there are normal people like me, who don’t really care because they understand the purpose of doormats.

However, as much as I hate to admit it, the shoes-off-ers might be on to something. A recent study led by researchers at the University of Houston has shown that 26.4% of shoes carry Clostridium difficile, while a 2015 study claimed that 40% of shoes carry Listeria monocytogenes. Work on a farm? A 2014 study concluded that your boots are almost certainly covered in E coli. These are not the things that should be traipsed through living rooms.

But I’m not going out without a fight. Sure, it might be more hygienic to remove your shoes at the door, but only infinitesimally so. By all accounts, you’re unlikely to get ill just because someone is wearing shoes in your living room. And if you have got young kids, who bolt in and out of the house without warning at the first sign of sun, it’s much more practical to keep your shoes on. Not to mention dignified; fewer things inspire more pity than the sight of adults flamingoing themselves into knots as they attempt to do up their shoelaces in a narrow hallway at the end of a night.

True, the answer to both of these problems is loafers. But given the choice of loafers or E Coli, I’ll take the latter every time.

Man wears high-heels to work because they make him feel empowered

Ashley Maxwell-Lam, a project manager for a major bank in Sydney, Australia, has been wearing six-inch stilettos to work for about a year and claims they make him feel empowered.

30-year-old Ashley has always loved women in high-heels and the power they exude, so he decided to adopt the same footwear in order to feel empowered as well.

The trick worked, and now he wears one of his nine pairs of six-inch stilettos to his financial services job in Sydney’s CBD several times a week, especially when meeting with new clients. Apparently, the combination of dapper suit, tie and high-heel shoes makes for a great ice-breaker.

The idea of wearing women’s high-heel shoes to work came about last year, right after Ashley moved from Queensland to Sydney.

One day, he watched a video of Yanis Marshall, Arnaud and Mehdi, a French trio of male dancers in high heels, on TV, and it got him thinking.

Then there was this female executive at his bank who seemed to tower over every room she walked in, and who claimed it was all in the shoes.

“I asked her how could an object make you feel powerful? So she said, ‘try them on and see’,” Maxwell-Lam told News.com.au. “I did and exactly what she said rang true. I’ve never felt more empowered then putting on a pair of stilettos and walking through a marble lobby.”

So Ashley, who is openly gay, has been wearing high-heels to work ever since. He doesn’t wear them day in, day out, as he admits they can get quite uncomfortable after a while, but he’ll always put them on when meeting with new clients.

His manager didn’t really know what to say when the 30-year-old told her that he planned on wearing high-heels to work, but he let her know that he was very serious about it.

“When I decided to wear them at work, I told my (manager) and she said, ‘Let me just confirm that’s OK,’” Ashley recalled. “It was her making sure I wouldn’t get in trouble, but I replied, ‘This is not me asking, this is not a request, this is me telling you I’m going to be wearing heels.'”

Although the reception of his footwear has been generally positive, Ashley Maxwell-Lam admits that he occasionally gets “looks of disgust”, particularly from members of the gay community.

“The only time I’ve had bad situations is actually within my own community,” he said. “(Some) gay people have said to me, ‘Why are you wearing a heel, that’s disgusting, you’re a man? You shove it down people’s throats, no wonder gays get bashed.”

“I reply, ‘You lost the right to judge me when you preened yourself within an inch of your life. You may look like a lumberjack but your tan’s out of a bottle, your eyebrows are plucked, you go to a barber twice a week and you’ve never touched a power tool in your life’. Our emblem is a rainbow and yet they condemn others because they don’t align with their way of thinking.”

Ashley says he loves the attention he gets when he’s trotting around in his manly suit and high-heel shoes, but it’s not why he does it. He just loves the “contrast between masculinity and femininity” and the way it makes people question things.

How to Choose the Ideal Pair of Wedding Shoes

There are a few factors to take note when choosing a pair of wedding shoes. Your partner and your height, the style and colour of your wedding gown, length of your gown and how comfortable you are wearing heels.

Heels, how high?

Higher heels will make your legs look more slender and toned (keeping your calves flexed), and they'll also ensure better posture.

Shorter brides are always tempted to go for higher heels to give them height. However if you do not wear high heels regularly, you may end up with sore feet and ruin your special day. Remember the shoes will need to be comfortable enough to be worn for the whole day.

Alternatively, it would be a good idea to start training walking with high heels before your big day.

If you have a long wedding dress, you can consider wedge platform style shoes, since the shoes will be concealed under the long dress.

Ultimately, you should consider heel height which you are comfortable with.

Bridal Shoes Colour

The traditional colour for wedding is ivory and white so the obvious choice is to choose the shoe colour that matches your gown. Silver is an easy colour to match so most brides would choose silver shoes as it complements their evening gown too

Lately there is a growing trend of brides becoming more adventurous and going for bolder colours like gold, rose red and apple green just to add their own unique flavour and really stand out on their big day. Bolder colours can be worn to match the wedding theme or bring out the subtle colour on the gown.

If possible bring a along fabric swatches of your gown. If you need to take a photo, be sure to take it under white or natural lights. Most bridal studio have yellow spot lights and any colour under yellow light will turn out to be misleading.

Type of gown

If your gown has elaborate details such as embroidery or beading, go for simple looking bridal shoes. The focus should be on your gown and you do not want the bridal shoes to take away that focus.

If you have a simple dress, more fancy looking shoes can really enhance and give the overall elegant look. Bridal shoes can be ornamented with embellishments such as crystals, rhinestone, bows, beading, and embroidery

Covered or open-toe

Covered wedding shoes give a more formal look and would be more suitable for church ceremonies or a grand wedding dinner.

Open toe wedding shoes are good for brides who want to show off their pedicure which is the rage nowadays. Open toe wedding shoes would be more suitable for hot tropical country like Singapore, especially for outdoor or garden weddings.

For those who are undecided, go for peep-toe shoes. You get the best of both worlds.