Is Running In Carbon-Plated Shoes Cheating?

Send me to running jail, because I’ll take every “unfair advantage” super shoes provide.

Every time I post on Instagram about my race shoes—in one year of marathoning, I wore the Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 2 in Colorado, Adidas Adizero Prime X Strung in Berlin, the New Balance FuelCell SuperComp Trainer in NYC, and the ASICS Metaspeed in Tokyo—I inevitably get a DM or two asking about whether racing in carbon-plated super shoes is “illegal” or “cheating.” 

Yes, professional athletes have gotten disqualified for competing in super shoes. But, uh, I am not a pro. I’m not even that fast. I’m about as far from the World Athletics organization as you can get—no governing sports body cares about what I wear on my feet. And while I love the *idea* that a shoe is doing some of the hard work for me, I’m also well aware that no super shoe is going to turn me into Brigid Kosgei on race day.

Still, I swear by them. As do so many other runners: 91 percent of runners who own super shoes said that the shoes give them more confidence, a recent report found, and 100 percent of the super shoe owners who have raced wearing their shoes believe they helped their performance.

Carbon-plated shoes, AKA super shoes, sandwich a lightweight, rigid carbon plate within a thick stack of foam; as you run, that plate acts as a lever, helping the foam compress and expand more quickly and propelling you forward with less effort. The combination of superior energy storage in the foam, the lever effects of the carbon plate on ankle joint mechanics, and the stiffening effects of the plate on the joints between the foot and the toes enables super shoes to boost your speed and allow for better efficiency, according to a 2019 study in the journal Sports Medicine. TL;DR: You’re using less energy with every step, putting less wear and tear on your body so you can run faster for longer.

The main selling point behind these shoes is that they improve your running economy, or the amount of energy you need to run at a given pace. Improved running economy was directly linked to faster race times in a 2016 study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.)

When the OG super shoe—the Nike Vaporfly 4%—was tested in 2018 at the “Locomotion Lab”  at the University of Colorado Boulder, it had a measurable effect on running economy. This particular shoe improved the running economy of “high caliber” runners (those who clocked 5:22 to 6:54 mile paces) by an average of four percent, the Nike-funded study determined. At the time, the lead author estimated the Vaporfly could reduce the current marathon world record of 2:02:57 to 1:58:54. (FWIW, in 2019, Eliud Kipchoge became the first human to run a sub-2:00:00 marathon, running 1:59:40 in a slightly different prototype—which became the Alphafly, the same style he wore when setting the current official world record of 2:01:09 in 2022). 

But four percent, even then, was an average. While the shoes did boost the running economy of all 18 study participants, some runners improved by as little as 1.59 percent while others improved by as much as 6.26 percent, the findings, published in Sports Medicine, showed.

More recently, an independent study published in 2023 in The International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance confirmed that the benefits differ depending on your pace. In the new research, participants—wearing the Nike ZoomX Vaporfly Next% 2—running at 9:40 mile pace improved their running economy by an average of 0.9 percent, while they improved by 1.6 percent at 8:03 mile pace. That would turn a 4:13:27 marathoner into a 4:10:43 marathoner, or a 3:31:00 marathoner into a 3:26:59 marathoner. (Thank you, ChatGPT.) Essentially, the faster you are, the more of a performance boost you’re going to see. 

But, for context, the average marathon finish time, according to 2019 data from Run Repeat, is 4:21:03 (around a 9:55 mile pace) for men and 4:48:45 (around an 11:00 mile pace) for women. So most people are looking at a performance boost of less than 0.9 percent, or less than a three-minute improvement on race day. That’s not nothing, but it’s also not as impressive as the four percent boost that’s been hyped for years.

The important thing to keep in mind, though, is that super shoes affect everyone differently. While some runners ("responders") showed a 2.9 percent increase in running economy in stiffer shoes, others (“non-responders”) showed a one percent decrease, a study in Footwear Science that pre-dates the Nike Vaporfly determined (it’s worth nothing because the stiffening effects of a carbon plate play a big role in the performance boost super shoes provide). Different runners do better with different levels of stiffness, 2020 research published in Footwear Science confirmed.

Does all this mean non-elites won’t benefit from super shoes? No way. When you’re wearing shoes that use the most high-tech materials, you’re not just getting speed benefits, you’re treating your muscles, bones, and joints a little bit better, which may mean you may recover from runs faster. It’s why I almost always wear super shoes on my long runs; I started with an old pair of Alphaflys, but now there are carbon-plated trainers like the New Balance FuelCell SuperComp Trainer or the Saucony Endorphin Speed 3 designed specifically for daily training. Plus, I’m a big believer in the placebo effect: If super shoes make you feel faster and more confident, you’ll probably run faster and with more confidence. 

Back to whether wearing super is cheating or not… The World Athletics’ competition rule requires that road running shoes have a maximum midsole thickness of 40 millimeters (exactly the stack height of the Alphafly, coincidentally) and no more than one stiff plate. But that rule only applies to elite athletes. The only person I’m competing against is myself—and I will take whatever performance boost I can get from a shoe with a 50-millimeter stack height or as many carbon/nylon/PEBAX plates a brand wants to stuff in there. If you don’t want that boost, that’s your choice! 

The reality is, the introduction of super shoes has irrevocably changed the sport of distance running. Do these shoes provide an unfair advantage, or are they just an inevitable result of innovation? Des Linden has spoken candidly about how once some pros started racing in super shoes, the others had no choice if they wanted to remain competitive; it’s why we’re seen nearly every sneaker brand release their own super shoe since 2017.

I also think that running should be fun and feel good, and a certain type of shoe makes you feel that way, even if it’s *technically* illegal, wear the freaking shoe. As long as you’re not gunning for a world record, an Olympic medal, or any other kind of championship title or podium prize, no one is policing your race day kit—except for the internet trolls, but you can go right ahead and ignore them. 

the rundown

Hoka Mach X
Finally, a Hoka shoe I want to train in! Hoka completely revamped the Mach midsole, sandwiching a Pebax plate between a more traditional foam near the outsole and a lighter, softer PEBA-based foam right underfoot. That combo makes for a snappier, more responsive ride that’s still as stable and cushioned as you’d expect from Hoka. (It’s a great training shoe to pair with the Rocket X 2 racer.) As someone who’s not a huge fan of the firmer foams in classic Hokas like the Clifton or Bondi, this felt like the daily trainer I’ve been waiting for—but, like the New Balance FuelCell SuperComp Trainer or the Saucony Endorphin Speed 3, I wouldn’t be surprised to see people racing in it, too.

Underfueling Undermines Your Gains
You know you need energy—read: calories—to fuel your workouts. But if you’re not eating enough, you’re not just going to feel terrible during exercise, your body is actually less likely to respond to training, according to a recent study in The Journal of Physiology. The researchers found that just ten days of low energy intake impaired muscle protein synthesis, which affects skeletal muscle adaptations, and led to negative changes to the hormonal system, followed by a decrease in metabolism. The takeaway: Diet and training go hand in hand, and if you want to maximize your gains, you need to fuel properly.

Shokz OpenFit Headphones
I tried headphones from Shokz for the first time last year, and I liked how bone conduction technology delivered sound through your cheekbone, bypassing your ears so you could still hear your surroundings (and stay safer while running outside). But I really like how the new OpenFit headphones improve on the sound quality of the brand’s previous products, using air conduction—just like traditional headphones that block off or seal up the ears—via tiny, very directional speakers. These weren’t specifically designed for fitness, but they do work for shorter, cooler runs; I wouldn’t use them for very long or hot runs, because the amount of sweat the liquid silicone they’re made of (which is so so soft) generates in your ear is wild.

The SPONSORED Project and Track Collective
Before the US Outdoor Championships kicked off last week, Bandit Running announced they’d be offering a free unbranded singlet to any competing athlete with a sponsorship. Very few athletes actually make a living in this sport, mostly because big sponsorship $$$ comes from big footwear brands and there’s only so much of that to go around. It’s an interesting PR move, and one that came on the heels of Colleen Quigley, Nikki Hiltz, Katie Camarena, and Emma Gee launching The Track Collective, a support network for developing professional track and field athletes. Running doesn’t seem to draw the same kind of eyeballs—and dollars—as other major sports, and I think we’re going to be seeing a lot of individual brand-building from athletes in order for them to get the attention they deserve, so these are exciting moves (follow Michael Johnson on Twitter for more on this topic).