Tim Hutchings savage quote about spring loaded mechanized shoes

Wear no shoes if you’re a purist

barefootthon wrote:

Wear no shoes if you’re a purist

Just saying... Ron Clarke recorded a WR 10,000m in 27:39.89 in 1965 on DIRT.

Speaks the truth

Here is another one.

https://twitter.com/TimHutchings1/status/1344405670670585860

This talk about records having asterisks really sounds like old man rantings. This is all going to sound silly in 10 years.

zoots wrote:

This talk about records having asterisks really sounds like old man rantings. This is all going to sound silly in 10 years.

Read above young buck, ... Ron Clarke ran 27:39.89 on DIRT in 1965. Don’t be a Fvkcin idiot... lol. You do think and you can read ..?!

I actually feel like they allow you to run to potential. All they are is a big stiff cushion. Their benefit is that you don't break down as much because you are properly cushioned. Running in flats for marathons should be seen as a huge fail by running companies, and now laughed about. "Can you believe Nike said the streaks have______ technology to help you run a faster marathon?" They didn't, they were light, and left your ass broke at the end of the day.

Timbo is not exactly the sharpest tool in the box.

The new shoes don't give you more energy, they just dissipate less energy.

He's a grumpy old git who can't accept that the sport is evolving and always has been.

Would he advocate going back to all leather shoes for an authentic race?

This ship has sailed so long ago that the port has burned down, the ship has sank, all insurance claims have been paid out to survivors and the ship company is bankrupt.

Yet people still insist on talking about this.

Another Dime for the Cursed Jar wrote:

Yet people still insist on talking about this.

The talk has just started. The sport is now evermore like cycling with its carbon fiber frames, in which top race results are partly a function of the non-stagnant technology of the footwear.

"To stop talking about such an important aspect of the sport would be like tuning in yesteryear to the Winter Olympics on Wide World of Sports without Jim Mckay discussing the attributes of the latest bobsled technology."

The talk has hardly just started. People have been whining about this for over 3 years now.

Also your analogy to cycling makes no sense. Carbon fiber frames have been the norm in the peloton for years now, 15+, if not more. The UCI regulates the triangles of all frames and some other geometry (the shape and drop of the bike, much like stack heights in running) but beyond that it's fair game. Aero and frame stiffness are what matters and every bike company is testing and tweaking their frames to no end. Both Aero and stiffness are what matters on a bike and as long as the bike conforms to the UCI's triangle and geometry there are little to no regulations.

It's not to stop talking about technology. It's vital to ALL sport.

Stopping whining about and issue that is not going anywhere, has been here for YEARS and will not change... that is the point that needs to stop.

Time is relative. Thirty years from now, this period in shoe technology may be looked at (discussed) as just the beginning.

And thus, it is a relatively new paradigm shift that shoe technology is, going forward, to continue to affect results, more significantly than just a few years ago. And thus, expect the spring-plate shoe technology to be tweaked to no end, without assurance that what is being given to the pros is the exact same derivations being unwittingly sold to the public. The margin for variability, in that regard, is much greater with the addition of a spring-plate (or spring-rods, etc.) in the soles.

Yet your statement in your original post was "...people still insist on talking about this," which prompted my reply.

Whether you agree or not, it is understandable that a sport founded on 'purity' of unassisted competition has now, in such a relatively short time frame, been so dramatically impacted by technology in the footwear. The bouncy foams, starting with Adida Boost (Kimetto's marathon world record in 2014), started changing conventions, but Nike 'jumped-the-shark' when they added a spring-plate to the foams, in essence, disregarding the old rule to "not cause a mechanical advantage". People will continue to talk about it, because that point has not fully registered with the public.

Who cares what this fossil has to say? People like this never have any reason for a ban other than "it's not fair" or objectively wrong statements that they spew as fact. The shoes don't give you free energy, they reduce how much you lose. There's no "not deserving" the time you run in so called magic shoes, you still expended the energy and trained so as long as you aren't doping or cheating in some other way, there's no issue except for the one that people like to make. See you in 10 years when we're fighting over something else.

Tim is one of the dumbest people I've ever met.

Every generation of shoe has made people better, and more comfortable, and post faster times.

Go shake your fist at the clouds.

You think Grumpy Pants Hutchings wouldn’t be wearing these if he was still racing?

Try harder, Tim.

I pointed out that improvement in shoe technology was hardly new & cited the adios Boost as an example. He asked me why it wasn’t debated in 2014 in comparison to now. I don’t know Tim. I was returning to running after 20 years as an overweight beer drinker. You’re mainstream media. You tell me.

bryan evans wrote:

Every generation of shoe has made people better, and more comfortable, and post faster times.

But every generation of shoe has not included a mechanical spring to store and return energy. There was first 'discussion' of the ethics around this when Spira was including helical (or wave-disc) springs in their shoe soles. If fact, in their advertising campaign, Spira used the tagline 'their shoes were banned' because of the unfair advantage.

thesecretracer wrote:

I pointed out that improvement in shoe technology was hardly new & cited the adios Boost as an example.

I still recall Hutchings' commentary from Kimetto's world record marathon, "they're bouncing off of the pavement".

Nike got trounced by Adidas with a better springier foam. So in response, Nike full-on 'jumped-the-shark' and added a mechanical spring plate to the foam, completely disregarding the old rule to "not provide mechanical advantage".