What Shoes do the Elite Runners Wear for Training?

Well obviously the shoe of their sponsor, then after that it probably varies a lot for each brand. It seems that everyone's foot is a little different and diff shoes feel good for diff people. I bet most of them wear the exact same shoes that everyone else wears, GT 2160, Lunar racers, adizero Glide etc.

I know Geb wears some of the more cushioned Adidas models. Rupp and Ritz wear the Pegasus, Solinsky wears Skylons. Ryan Hall wears the Cumulus, etc. Most of them don't wear "minimal" shoes, but normal cushioned models.

Another related question... does anyone know if elites train in shoes not made by their sponsors? Obviously in public they have to wear their sponsor but i'm curious if any elites have a "favorite shoe" that is made by another brand that they wear for training.

I have seen Ritz run in the Lunar Flys and Same with Torrence

Some of your 2nd (3rd and 4th, more likely) string sponsored athletes have been known to wear other brands when no-one is looking. Various reasons, obvi. But basically because some companies shoes aren't perfect for some people

(If I ever get good enough for a sponsor, I can never be sponsored by brooks, I can't wear ANY of their shoes!)

Plimsouls

[quote]BHO wrote:

Well obviously the shoe of their sponsor.

Not obviously unless they are broke. They only need to wear their sponsors shoes in races

Maybe they do but I'm looking for specific facts

[quote]shoe guy wrote:

I know Geb wears some of the more cushioned Adidas models. Rupp and Ritz wear the Pegasus, Solinsky wears Skylons. Ryan Hall wears the Cumulus, etc. Most of them don't wear "minimal" shoes, but normal cushioned models.

Thanks for the info

Salazar's group uses Katana Rac3rs for workouts, if I'm not mistaken.

well obviously the only reason they're wearing shoes at all is because the shoe companies pay them. if it were up to them they would all be going either barefoot or in vibram five fingers.

shoe guy wrote:

I know Geb wears some of the more cushioned Adidas models.

That explains why he's always getting injured.

Ritz-Span/Skylon

Solinski-Skylon

Hall/Baldini-Cumulus

Haile-Response Cushion

Wanjiru-Zoom Elite (not sure)

Rothlin-DS Trainer (not sure)

I know lots of elites that are starting to train in the kinvaras and launch. DS Trainer and Pegasus were old favorites of my buddies that ran for Nike and Asics.

The thing about elites is that they have access to new shoes all the time, so don't be surprised when you see them rotating 2 or 3 pairs of shoes in training. They will have several sets of flats, trainers, and spikes, all of which are ready to be based up depending on how the legs and feet are feeling on any given day. That's the advantage of being sponsored by a big shoe company.

Mizuno Precision

J.R. wrote:

That explains why he's always getting injured.

Addidas Sequence: greatest shoe known to man

J.R. wrote:

shoe guy wrote:

I know Geb wears some of the more cushioned Adidas models.

That explains why he's always getting injured.

I met Geb in Nov. in Addis Ababa at his gym. Like the flotrack videos leading up to the NYC marathon, he was wearing Adidas flats - I think they were the Adios. This was shortly after NYC.

A lot of the elite Kenyans do progression runs in midweight trainers like the Response or Pegasus, and sometimes wear even heavier ones like the Asics 2090.

most of the future elites (young kenyans) train barefoot. At World Junior XC's, a lot of them even race barefoot. There's some funny pics of german getting beat by barefoot kenayns.

but there's always the possibility you'll get attacked by a dog, in which case you'll need something hard to kick them with. Which is why you should wear shoes. Also, barefoot running makes your house germ-infested when you come back.

in my opinion, minimalist shoes are best for training. Kind of irrelevant to what the OP asked, but who cares. Free 3.0's on the roads, xc flats for uneven surfaces.

A very small minority of them actually train barefoot. I will show pictures from Iten/Eldoret if you desire.

I think the evil vibram corporation wants you to think it is best to train barefoot and that all of the elites do ha ha ha ha.

What a switch-a-roo!

J.R. wrote:

shoe guy wrote:

I know Geb wears some of the more cushioned Adidas models.

That explains why he's always getting injured.

Yeah... clearly a guy who's won Olympic and World gold medals and broken numerous world records and is still world class at 37 years old has got it all wrong... :/