I've known about this particular patent/model for a few months now, and I've seen taped-up prototypes of this shoe on BTC Elite athletes. Now, the shoe has finally been unveiled (well, unofficially) and it looks to be one of the most bizarre Nike prototypes yet, and it's bending the rules of the sport.
The Vaporfly/Next%'s structure right now looks like this:
Foam
Carbon plate
Foam
Outsole
The performance benefits we've seen have been significant, but I think once people started to learn more about the shoe, it's become "duh, of course, that's revolutionary" and other companies have followed suit. Cool. I guess Nike is bending the rules of the sport a bit, but it's still an interesting shoe.
Now it looks like Nike has got them all by the balls and has created something that is totally in the realm of spring-loaded performance enhancing shoes.
The alphaFLY looks like this:
Foam
Carbon plate
Foam
Zoom Air
Carbon plate
Zoom Air
Carbon plate
Outsole
Getting a headache yet?
I'm sure Nike knows that with this setup, 1:59 is not only possible but probable, given everything goes to plan. That's not to knock Kipchoge at all, obviously he's a once-in-a-lifetime talent, but c'mon. This is getting ridiculous. If this thing is released throughout the Nike ranks, how in the hell is this going to be fair?
Obviously because of the Vaporfly, we all know Rule 143 of the IAAF Competition Rules:
Rule 143: Clothing, shoes and athlete bibs
- Any type of shoe used must be reasonably available to all in the spirit of the universality of athletics. Shoes must not be constructed so as to give athletes any unfair assistance or advantage.
This shoe pretty much ticks off all the boxes -- definitely not reasonably available (yet?), constructed to give an (unfair?) assistance/advantage, and may or may not be in the spirit of the universality of athletics.
Believe in the Run did a great article on this shoe:
https://www.believeintherun.com/2019/10/09/a-breakdown-of-the-nike-kipchoge-prototype/
Obviously we can all copy the Vaporfly and be fine with it. But when does the IAAF heed by their rulebook and stop this nonsense?
