With the Tokyo Olympics just around the corner, athletes are looking for any edge they can find.
For track athletes, this edge appears to have come in the form of Nike’s latest ‘super shoe’ – the Nike ZoomX Dragonfly.
A combination of carbon plates and energy-returning foam have been used to create the new athletic shoe, which is already helping athletes smash world records. In fact, Nike’s new spikes have been used to set world bests in the men’s and women’s 5000m and 10,000m in recent months.
The shoe is so fast, in fact, that Nike’s rivals Reebok and Brooks have had to allow their sponsored athletes to wear the ZoomX Dragonfly, despite the clear branding issues.
The fact that this technology appears to only be exclusively available in a Nike product is sure to cause headaches for athletes and shoe companies, who must now balance commercial imperatives with their chances of winning at the upcoming games.
Nike clearly realises the stir it has created with the super shoe and has offered a (very cheeky) solution for its competitors.
On Instagram this week, Nike unveiled a completely unbranded version of the shoe, inviting athletes to “paint em’, tape em’, do whatever you’d need to do to let them fly by whomever they’d need to fly by”.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CQmCUyDrEDk/
The new super spikes of course draw similarities with the ‘super suits’ that were briefly used to break all number of world records in swimming, before promptly being banned in 2009.
Whether or not World Athletics will take similar action against these super spikes remains to be seen. However, the governing body is on record as saying its role involves “embracing innovation that helps athletes train and perform to their talented best whilst balancing that with fair play and reasonable access to new technology.”
