Why average runners don’t need to keep pace with hi-tech shoe advances

Sports shoe development is moving at a sprinter’s speed, with smart shoes offering wearers more information than ever
Such advances are, however, far beyond the needs of most runners, who would be better off looking for discounts at outlet stores

David Dodwell

Published: 8:30pm, 2 Jun 2024

Why you can trust SCMP

The next time you travel on the MTR, look down. The likelihood is that most of the passengers are wearing trainers. Designed for athletes and other sporty types, they have been adopted by nearly everyone, making us the most comfortably shod humans in history.

Podiatrists, athletes and even AI proselytes have converged to apply foot technology not just for basketball fanatics, athletes and trail runners but for the disabled, the elderly, the blind and even vegans. Sports shoes are at the heart of a global footwear market valued at around US$400 billion that makes an estimated 24 billion pairs of shoes a year and employs around 5 million people.

A 2023 survey of 1,000 Americans by Kuru Footwear found that 65 per cent of respondents said trainers were their favourite type of shoe, and the average Hong Kong old-timer can’t be far behind. This is not because they plan to train for the Oxfam Trailwalker or even venture out onto the municipal badminton court. Rather, it is because they now have access to footwear that is comfortable enough to allow them to escape their cramped homes and wander pain-free through Hong Kong’s shopping centres.

While humans have undoubtedly treasured footwear of some kind since we evolved to become bipedal, the fact that footwear materials tend not to fossilise makes their history tough to trace.

The earliest known fossilised shoes belonged to Otzi the Iceman, the mountain hunter found frozen in Austria’s Tyrolean Alps in 1991. Even then, it seems footwear fashion was alive and well. His mountain shoes, lined with fur and cushioned with grass, were made of three kinds of leather: from a bear, a deer and a cow.

01:03

Chinese men rush to buy shoes, damaging escalator

From then until the early 1800s, footwear tech relied on leather and nails. The revolution that transformed footwear came in the form of vulcanised rubber, developed by Charles Goodyear in 1839. First used by croquet players who did not want to damage their carefully manicured grass, rubber soles were soon taken up by tennis and basketball players.

But the world of athletics, jogging or aerobics began to play with modern foot tech much later. When Roger Bannister ran the world’s first sub-4-minute mile in 1954, he did it in running spikes that resembled “nails hammered through a pair of Oxfords”. It was only in 1971 that Bill Bowerman, the founder of Nike, brought athletics out of the leather-and-nail age, taking advantage of the new cushioning potential of ethylene vinyl acetate.

Innovation in shoe technology has progressed rapidly since then, and for mere mortal joggers like me it can be a bit hard to stay on top of. Gone are the days when you simply asked for a wide-fitting size 10. Shoe hype for the world’s estimated 20 million trail runners brings intimidating choices of high to low heel-to-toe drops, deep or shallow lugs, carbon fibre midsole plates, gillie lacing and mesh uppers.

On one hand, I am alarmed by such a range of choices and how I might respond to a salesperson telling me that a trainer’s roomy anatomical foot shape allows my toes to splay naturally. On the other, I suspect they will make not an iota of difference to how well or badly I jog through my Clear Water Bay trails.

The High Junk Peak Country Trail in Clear Water Bay. Photo: Great Outdoors Adventure

The latest e-shoes can come with features such as a gyroscope, an accelerometer, pressure sensors, a magnetometer to track your gait, GPS in case you get lost, altimeters so you know how high you have climbed, even live-coaching feedback on your latest running performance. China’s Xiaomi – not renowned for sports shoes – has MiJia smart shoes which measure speed, distance, calories, weight and more.

Made for construction workers, Zhor Tech shoes can count steps, measure fatigue, track posture and send alerts in case of accidents. Lechal Footwear makes trainers for the visually impaired. You can even get vegan shoes, with Reebok using eucalyptus mesh, algal blooms and natural rubber.

As trail runner Jess Keefe wrote in Runner’s World: “When it comes to my regular-human running routine, wading through a sea of techy acronyms and proprietary foam names is exhausting and breeds self-doubt.” A large number of these amazing tech innovations are in truth relevant only to world-class athletes trying to shave off the seconds between them and a new world record – and the shoe specialists looking for the associated bragging rights.

03:05

Inside China’s ‘shoe capital’: the Jinjiang brands running toward global markets

For the likes of Keefe and those of us who are not out to break any records, it might be best just to think about the basics. Is the cushioning good, is there arch support, are they wide-fitting and do they protect you from slipping in rough terrain? For Keefe, there is a single key question: “Once these shoes are on, will I be able to completely forget about them and instead focus on my actual running?”

And so it is for all those fellow passengers on the MTR who have been converted to trainers for their workaday activity. When pressed to choose what to buy, they would do well to follow Keefe’s advice to go down to an outlet store and “scoop up last season’s Asics at a deep discount”.

I did that when I was last in Dubai, but I have a guilty secret: I scooped up Hokas rather than Asics. It’s not because they would boost my irredeemably mediocre performance but because I loved their flamboyant colours. They are sure to attract more attention when I’m on the MTR.

David Dodwell is CEO of the trade policy and international relations consultancy Strategic Access, focused on developments and challenges facing the Asia-Pacific

Post