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Technology
OpinionHong Kong Opinion
David Dodwell
David Dodwell

Inside Out | 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

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A jogger runs along the waterfront at West Kowloon Cultural District on June 23, 2023. While shoe technology has made vast progress, many of the innovations are aimed more at high-performing runners instead of the general public. Photo: Dickson Lee
David Dodwell

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.

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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.

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Chinese men rush to buy shoes, damaging escalator

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.
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