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EPISODE NOTES
- 1:30 meet Dustin Joubert
- 3:00 Dustin’s first experience with modern ‘supershoes’
- 5:30 all the published research is on the Nike Vaporfly line
- 6:30 what is a ‘supershoe’?
- Carbon plates increase rigidity
- More / thicker cushioning
- New, higher compliance materials
- 8:15 defining the primary metric used to compare shoes: running economy
- 11:45 the Study
- 19:45 the results
- Top-tier tested shoes: Nike Alphafly, Vaporfly, Asics Metaspeed Sky
- Mid-tier shoes: Saucony Endorfphine Pro, NB RC Elite
- No-effect shoes: Hoka Rocket X, Brooks Hyperion Elite 2
- 22:00 is it possible to correlate midsole foam material to performance in this study?
- 25:00 which shoe should I buy?
- 28:45 field testing shoes
- 30:30 translating running economy improvements to race performance
- ~1:1 improvement in race times vs improvement in economy at slower speeds (~14kph)
- ~⅔ : 1 improvement in race times vs improvement in economy at faster speeds
- With the caveat that economy itself may not increase as much at slower speeds
- 36:00 what’s next in shoe tech?
Dustin’s Supershoe paper preprint.
Follow Dustin’s Instagram account on the latest on his formal and case study work.