Hey all --
I have been running (happily and largely injury free) in Asics Gel Kayanos and/or Asics GT2000s for pretty much the last 15 years. They're my go-to and I generally don't even both looking at other shoes when the time comes to buy a new pair. In fact, I'm still using the old "cushion" vs "support" vs "motion control" continuum to make sense of the running shoe world (I tend to gravitate toward "support," but if it can be "cushion-support," I like that, too, hence the Kayano).
That said, I've recently begun wondering if I'm missing out on possible great strides in the world of Other Shoes and I'm curious to hear people's thoughts on whether the likes of Nike, Adidas, Puma, Reebok, Hoka, etc., have actually been making great progress in shoe technology in recent years -- or whether 99% of all this is just hokum (and, therefore, I should just stick with what's worked for me, namely the Asics kicks).
Obviously, Nike's made a big splash with its 4% Flyknit stuff; I just read that Adidas had a breakthrough a handful of years ago with its Thermoplastic polyurethane elastomers (TPU) technology for its UltraBoost (I hadn't even heard of UltraBoost until this morning when I started searching the web for information on this stuff).
Were these really milestones in shoe technology? Or are there others I've missed? Have these technologies really IMPROVED running shoes? Or would we all be just as well off if we could strap on a pair of mid 2000s trainers?
Many thanks. Hoping for a lively discussion...