Kenyans train in these... pics of shoes

Yes, it is very common for Kenyans to train in shoes of this condition, many athletes set aside enough money for a single pair of shoes when they begin running, and cannot afford to replace them, even after many years. Sub-elite Kenyans in Iten and elsewhere will often approach white foreigners with the aim of obtaining some sort of sponsorship, and the one of the first things that they will usually ask for is a new pair of shoes. The truly world-class Kenyans with Nike and Adidas sponsorships will obviously have much greater resources and can afford to frequently replace their shoes, therefore a good way to pick the elites out of a big crowd is to look at their feet. But there are a huge number of 2:15 and faster type guys who have been wearing the same trainers for five years or more.

osm wrote:

Yes, it is very common for Kenyans to train in shoes of this condition, many athletes set aside enough money for a single pair of shoes when they begin running, and cannot afford to replace them, even after many years. Sub-elite Kenyans in Iten and elsewhere will often approach white foreigners with the aim of obtaining some sort of sponsorship, and the one of the first things that they will usually ask for is a new pair of shoes. The truly world-class Kenyans with Nike and Adidas sponsorships will obviously have much greater resources and can afford to frequently replace their shoes, therefore a good way to pick the elites out of a big crowd is to look at their feet. But there are a huge number of 2:15 and faster type guys who have been wearing the same trainers for five years or more.

gives some perspective on doping in kenya and ethiopia - they can't afford $50 for shoes and they are expected to not take a chance on winning thousands of dollars by cheating.

being poor doesn't mean you automatically commit fraud - most poor people are 100% honest - but it does give some perspective to the situation.

Thanks for posting this! I did not know about this at all. I will be donating my old running shoes next time i go by my running store for sure

holiness wrote:

That's why they are better.

https://mikerunsawayfromhome.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/img_0414.jpghttp://images.csmonitor.com/csm/2016/05/SHOES.jpg?alias=original_600

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are they really significantly better?

I saw in a documentary that these are not even personal shoes, they pile them in a room and they change them each day... then put them in the same place. They share the shoes..

Not only runners wear used shoes.

The Second-hand shoe (and car/appliance/[insert good/commodity here]) economy in Africa is enormous. Entrepreneurs have built sizable retirements and thriving businesses off of buying used shoes (and cars etc.) from developed markets (Europe/Arab Gulf)..

The taxation regime in Kenya and elsewhere also has plenty of holes for an entrepreneur to sneak used goods into the country without paying tax.

Another interesting note is that all the Kenya Nike National Kits for sale in Kenya are aimed to western buyers. Kenyan Olympic officials are infamous for selling the Kenya kits/gear/singlets/half-tights, which they receive from NIKE INC.(after an intense bidding war between the shoemakers for sponsorship of Kenya's national team, subject of a recent inquiry) for free, on Ebay and other alternate pathways, with the proceeds filling the coffers of the bureacracy rather than the purses of the athletes themselves.

one of the incentives for getting selected onto a Kenyan national team is the opportunity upon return to Iten, to sell the gear received from Nike immediately to a resaler in town who puts it up on Ebay at a price which he is confident he can reach.

They also run on almost no concrete -- all soft dirt I think -- so the shoe really just needs to protect their feet, instead of cushion the impact of their whole body like many Americans need.

Anyone who saw the ARD documentaries knows that they really train in these:

http://classic.iol.co.za/polopoly_fs/doping-bottles-1.1605565

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hey everyone, 2003 called...it wants it's thread back.

Running on city streets with lopsided road, pot holes, etc. are the worst thing you can do. I've been doing 90% of the runs on the div 1 track (lane 7) nearby for the last 5 weeks. Incredible difference. Recover faster. Hip pain that I was trying to "cure" for about a year is almost all gone. The track is the same one Bolt trains at home.

Even the pavements are not all the same. The ones that are tarp like with very smooth surface tends to be softer. I can run on those with minimal problems. But at my age, the condition of the surface makes a lot of difference.