I concur. Same holds true with the PGA. Nike sponsors most of the top golfers who are all dressed in Nike clothing with no other sponsor logos on the hats, shirts, pants and shoes allowed. The TV exposure is priceless. Marketing-wise, Nike is just smarter than anyone else.
sbeefyk2 wrote:
The fact that you all believe the shoe makes someone run faster is proof of the power of marketing. They have you all fooled. Yes, there's some academic studies that show benefits from the shoe, but the results are suspect. They take a runner's time without the shoes and with the shoes. They claim they control for exogenous variables, but they cannot control for the placebo benefit if being more confident and expecting to run faster in the shoes. Therefore you run faster and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy that you run faster in the shoes when in reality it was simply the first time you ran close to your 100% potential.
I hate to burst your bubbles, but it's all marketing. The shoes don't make you run faster by themselves.
Your position is completely illogical. All of the evidence from multiple studies indicates that the shoes do indeed offer a significant advantage over other shoes. If you believe that the current evidence is not sufficient to convince you, then at best you can only rationally be agnostic. You have no logical basis for claiming that the shoes don't offer an advantage. All of the existing evidence is against you. In order for you to rationally claim the opposite, you need at least some kind of evidence on your side. If you're just skeptical of the current evidence and don't have any contradictory evidence to present, then at most the only logical position for you is to be agnostic. Claiming certainty regarding a conclusion for which there is no evidence is completely irrational.
it's all about the almost heal-strike.
*Facepalm*
We’re entering the second decade of the millennium and people still believe there’s a single magical footstrike.
I'm FFF wrote:
This is when the moron/Nike shill chimes in and says "it's the foam."
It's not the foam, it's the plate(s). Because without the foam, the shoe would be unusable. A worse ankle-sprain risk than it is now. The design of Kipchoge's latest shoe, with multiple plates, foam, and air, is brilliant, and beyond an assist. It's damn near a motor. No, it doesn't create energy alone, but when worn by a runner, who is running anyway, it offers energy return far beyond anything rational.
This is no different than a motor on a racing bicycle that stores tiny bits of energy on mountain descents through the braking process (like a Tesla), then releases it on uphills. This would be illegal.
The only good part of this shoe development is that it's a dead-end for the user. See: Rupp. And others.
Much like the LZR (?) swimsuits that re-wrote the record books, this too needs to be banned. I believe carbon bats in baseball have a ban somewhere too, right? This isn't unheard of.
Just watch Dubai early next year. I bet 6-10 are together late, with most coming in under 2:01 or 2:02, and all wearing this shoe. Tell me when someone wearing a shoe that's not a Cheaterfly, or a competitor clone, runs under 2:02.
This! Thank you! Guys, it's really pointless arguing about this. When you show me a runner who has run a sub 2:03 race in non-vaporflies other than Kimetto, then we can talk!