So far the public, who sadly have little interest in athletics, are largely ignorant of the impact "mechanical doping" has had on the sport of running. Sure they may see a headline that a record had been broken, but probably don't realise since the shoes became turbocharged spring loaded mechanical systems, that records, SBs, PBs have become almost meaningless.
What could threaten the blissful ignorance of the public, I'd suggest if the records of the person who they regard as the world's greatest athlete for perhaps a decade, suddenly ended up broken on a weekly basis by unknown athletes, that certainly would. The house of cards would come tumbling down, the sponsorship value of the sport diminish, what little is left of public interest evaporate and the integrity of the sport would fall to that of pro-cycling.
Perhaps here even Nike realised this.