• Chronicle: Elli Kipchoge breaks the two-hour barrier in a custom marathon
  • Feature: Nike's Vaporfly, 'magic' shoes to run faster and reduce fatigue, improves or cheats?

In a huge auditorium in Shanghai and before a huge screen, a manager glosses the benefits of the product: the 80% improvement in the performance it offers, its very light weight, the 14 prototypes used until reaching the final model and, in the end, flash !, the wonder, along with the name of its designer, a former designer of the competition. It is not an electronic car or a smartphone; It's about running shoes.

Welcome to the spring revolution, welcome to the new era of athletics. Three weeks ago, the Chinese company Li-Ning presented its Fei Dian, a kind of copy of the Nike Vaporfly, the 'miracle' shoes that raised Eliud Kipchoge in Vienna and have broken all marathon records, and corroborated what has been known for months: that there is no going back.

While the International Athletics Federation (IAAF) is still studying what to do with the rebound effect invented by Nike, the competition has no choice but to respond to ingenuity and, therefore, several brands have already presented and even sold their models with carbon fiber plate. The first was the French Hoka, whose Carbon Rocket and Carbon X are already becoming famous; Then came New Balance and its FuelCell 5280; Sketchers later with his Speed ​​Elite and finally, this month, it was the turn of Li-Ning and his Fei Dian.

None of the four brands - not even New Balance - have the ability to knock down the phenomenon of the Nike Vaporfly, which in the last year have flooded all popular marathons, but there is a factory that can try it: it is Adidas. The German company, which until the emergence of the Vaporfly dominated the long distance athletics market, has been forced to completely change its usual line and offer a response.

As you could see at the foot of Amos Kipruto in the Doha World Marathon and other runners of the brand in the Gold Coast or Prague marathons, Adidas is developing a prototype with a carbon fiber plate and a new cushioning compound which will park the hitherto hegemonic Boost. There is no release date, not even the name of the shoes -Lightstrike? - but they are supposed to be ready to compete with the Vaporfly soon.

To do so he will have to look for a great event, maybe his Berlin marathon, maybe the Tokyo Olympic Games, and a great athlete who can make an extraordinary mark with them. With almost all the experts delivered to the benefits of Nike it won't be easy, but Adidas will at least have to try.

The only thing clear is that when they reach the market they will be expensive. When Nike launched its Vaporfly, it raised the usual price of shoes - from 100 to 140 euros - up to 250 euros and has stabilized. Even the copy of Li-Ning costs the same. Running is no longer available to everyone. And the spring revolution has only just begun.

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