Opinion – In the Race: Running shoes: how much do you want to pay?

Street racing was supposed to be cheap. Activity practiced by mankind since time immemorial, the act of running does not require any type of equipment. Ethiopian marathon runner Abebe Bikila won the gold medal at the Rome Olympics running barefoot. This was in 1960. If you stop to think about it, it wasn’t even that long ago.

Street racing was supposed to be cheap, but it’s not. The athlete’s natural behavior is to seek better performance, have more details about their performance, increase their comfort, prevent injuries or simply have state-of-the-art equipment. And it gives you to buy sneakers, install an app, update your wardrobe and use a GPS watch. And all this costs money. Much. Money.

The question that many amateur runners ask themselves today is whether it is worth investing in the so-called “board tennis”. For the uninitiated, I explain. In 2017, Nike released the Vaporfly, a running shoe with a carbon plate in the midsole. Adoption by elite athletes was immediate, and other manufacturers began to offer products with this technology. Records began to fall. The impact on race times was such that World Athletics, the entity that regulates athletics competitions, created a commission just to decide whether the use of shoes with carbon plates constituted some kind of “mechanical doping”. As the technology had been around since the 1990s and had only been improved, the equipment was released.

What makes these sneakers so special? In addition to being lightweight, they are more responsive than traditional models with gel or EVA foam. The energy generated by the pressure of the foot on the ground during the race is returned to the runner, who has the sensation of being pushed upwards. Asics, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of running shoes, estimates that performance gains exceed 2% on its high-end models. Some studies suggest that the energy saved in each step can reach 4%. It may seem little, but in a marathon, when the runner needs to cover 42 km, 2% savings means almost 1 km less wear. It’s too much.

Physiotherapist Daniel Kuriu has already run multiple marathons and is part of the group of amateur athletes who adopted the carbon plate sneaker. “It’s a revolution. The feeling is that tennis absorbs a good part of the impact and throws you forward, preserving your muscles and joints”, he explains.

If they’re so good, why aren’t board shoes on every runner’s feet? There are some good reasons to slow down technology adoption. The first one is that tennis is a performance piece of equipment, and that’s it. “I look at tennis shoes like I look at football boots. The game is over, you take off and put on another shoe. Both are made for specific use during sports, not for walking around the mall.” Although there are more comfortable models, the priority is to make the shoe as light as possible – which can mean reducing the comfort and stability of the shoe in everyday activities.

Another argument I’ve heard in conversations with coaches and runners is that adaptation may not be so simple. “Board tennis is a performance-oriented piece of equipment, and it is not always the most suitable for those who are amateurs, who only exercise occasionally and do not have the correct running mechanics”, says Gustavo Guedes, physical education teacher and coach at the consultancy. Perfect Race, from Brasilia. Despite not encouraging, Guedes says that 90% of the athletes he follows have already made the switch to board tennis.

Remember I started the text saying that running is expensive? So it is. This may be the factor that weighs the most when deciding whether or not to buy a tennis shoe. The overwhelming majority of models cost four figures. The ZoomX Vaporfly Next% 2 costs R$2,099.99 on Nike’s website. The Metaspeed Edge+, launched by Asics, costs BRL 1,899.99 (August 2022 prices). And then, it is up to the runner to know not only his stride, his pace and his time in the race. You need to know the size of your bank account well.

Is that you? Have you run with tennis shoes? Tell your experience in the comments