Leo Young raced in unreleased On Spikes

They’ve given them to various high profile unsponsored athletes. Sophia G has run in them. Eric Sowinski. Etc

prelude to an N to the I to the L

Stanford is a Nike school so I don’t think that could work with On. Could be wrong though

Thought they could only run in shoes that are available to the public?

World Athletics revised their rules, they no longer need to be available to the public but instead the shoe companies must have a program in which they're made available to elite athletes.

Could you post the link of the rule revision that states that “they no longer need to be available to the public”. If true, how does anyone know that the shoe an athlete is wearing is legal?

The only sub-2 hour marathon run was accomplished with a prototype Alpha Fly that would now be illegal (more than 1 plate). Nike revised the design of that flat to now only have one plate and the Alpha Fly is legal and is readily available to anyone. We can be reasonably sure that all Alpha Flys worn in competitions are also legal because they can be purchased at a store and dissected to reveal the legality of their composition.

In contrast, only a handful of people know what is inside the ON spikes. ON spikes have produced some of the fastest times in the world this year including the current American record in the indoor mile. But all these fast track times have been produced with footwear that are essentially prototypes. I am not suggesting that the ON spikes are illegal, but allowing prototype footwear in competitions means that the only way to verify the legality of each spike is to have the spikes in a competition be “tested” after each use. Similar to drug testing. I don’t think anyone wants that. But how can we be sure that ON (or any other shoe company / individual) is not “corking their bats” (to use an analogy from baseball)?

Honestly, this is not a good look for ON. ON already has the reputation for having gimmicky shoes and overpriced apparel. To quote a runner sponsored by ON, this is not "good for the sport." ON seems like they are just buying their way into the sport. Sure, other companies buy their way into the sport. But ON's whole brand just feels like one big astroturf. There are very few genuine ON supporters outside of the people with financial ties to ON and it is hard to garner support for a brand that pulls crap like this.

Before 2018, ON's shoes were horrible. I am happy they improved their shoes. You want people to like your brand, then make your shoes more available. Basically what they are communicating is, you are not good enough to wear our spikes and you are going to have to wait an unreasonable amount of time and pay a ludicrous price in order to buy them. My prediction is that they will not release their spike until 2024 at the earliest.

Cool. I wanna put a pair On and do a time trial... Might have a PR or two left in these masters legs.

Damn just release them already I want to buy a pair

Jim Ryun's burner account

worldathletics.org

World Athletics amends rules governing shoe technology and Olympic qualification system | PRESS-RELEASES | World Athletics

World Athletics today announces further revisions to its rules governing shoe technology, which are designed to give certainty to athletes preparing for the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and to preserve the integrity of...

Open link

The parts about the "Athletic shoe availability scheme" are what I'm referring to. This updated the original rule which stipulated that all shoes must be available to the public for X days. I believe this also covers approved prototype shoes.

They didn’t have more than one plate you muppet. The multiplate design was concept they patented but didn’t execute. Kipchoge’s Alphas were identical to what went on sale.

Plus, as long as the shoes have been presented to WA for approval, brands have a one year development window where anyone, including pros, can race in them before they go on sale. That’s in the rules. Nobody needs to present the information to you, you can stop being lazy and actually read about it yourself.

Bye Felicia

the horror, the horror

They’re the golden boys of US track and field, so it’s a performance benefit for them and a PR move for On to get more people to buy their spikes

“The only sub-2 hour marathon run was accomplished with a prototype Alpha Fly that would now be illegal (more than 1 plate).”

-absolutely false statement. 100% incorrect. How in the wide world of sports did you even come up with this in your head?

World Athletics maintains a list of approved shoes. You can find the current list here, updated as of March 3, 2023:

https://www.worldathletics.org/download/download?filename=f1e1ffee-9dcc-49d6-9ac8-5d8aaa29cf62.pdf&urlslug=World%20Athletics%20Approved%20Shoe%20List%20(as%20at%203%20March%202023)

You can find the ON spikes on page 12.

Looking at that list, I wonder if the Nike shoes labeled "Dev 163" and "Dev 2263" are Vaporfly 3 and Alphafly 3, since Alphafly appeared in the Tokyo marathon but isn't named in the list.

I came up with this idea based on reading articles on line and looking at the Patent that showed three plates. But I was wrong in assuming that the AlphaFlys he wore had three plates. They only had one plate. They were the same as the production AlphaFlys that were later released.

My bad. My apologies.