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Nov 2020
1:49pm, 30 Nov 2020
3,262 posts
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J2R
The 'proof' will be podium places, or long-standing records being broken, by athletes in the Saucony shoes. The fact that that's not happened yet might be to do with sponsorship issues, though, rather that any superiority of one shoe over another. It will take a little time to catch up.
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Nov 2020
1:55pm, 30 Nov 2020
32,323 posts
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SPR
That's proof to an extent I agree J2R, Nike totally changed the dynamic of running and it was visible from the times being run, but Nike did actually have research behind it to back it up.
Jda - Has anyone tried to catch up with low stack height?
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Nov 2020
1:57pm, 30 Nov 2020
12,813 posts
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larkim
The problem with that approach though J2R is that so few really top elite runners are Saucony sponsored, that the results are likely to continue to show the Nike shoes doing the best. That might be a sad indictment of the dominance that Nike has at the moment, but I don't think we'll be seeing Jared Ward, Molly Huddle etc winning the World Champs, Olympics, big city marathons even if their shoes are superior to those being worn by Kipchoge, Kosgei etc etc.
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Nov 2020
1:59pm, 30 Nov 2020
32,324 posts
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SPR
Agree Larkim. If some can win national races though and make a noticeable jump it might give them a boost
I note Hola seem to be getting a few elite/ sub elite runners who they presumably hope will convince club mates to go with them.
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Nov 2020
2:04pm, 30 Nov 2020
32,325 posts
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SPR
*Hoka
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Nov 2020
2:12pm, 30 Nov 2020
8,882 posts
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jda
SPR, the adidas sub-2 shoe was pretty low IIRC. Not sure about others but we're now a long way down the line from the original VF.
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Nov 2020
2:14pm, 30 Nov 2020
3,263 posts
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J2R
larkim, that's kind of what I was meaning. The fact that you're not seeing so many Saucony (or xxx) shoes on the podium probably reflects as much on their lack of sponsorship deals as the performance capabilities of their shoes. However, if company X is making shoes which are objectively faster, I imagine the top athletes must come to them over time. There's just a bit of a lag.
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Nov 2020
2:16pm, 30 Nov 2020
12,814 posts
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larkim
I'm not entirely sure it would even work that way, not in any fast timescale anyway - Nike have the top end so well wrapped up, and have so much more money than Saucony etc to throw at sponsorship that the shoes won't get the reputation for being fast, even if they are.
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Nov 2020
2:45pm, 30 Nov 2020
8,883 posts
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jda
I think you underestimate the power of results. There are numerous cases of athletes blacking out logos etc in order to compete in preferred kit. Of course there's likely a bit of a hurdle to overcome so a similarly-good or even slightly better shoe might not get the recognition it deserves.
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Nov 2020
2:50pm, 30 Nov 2020
12,818 posts
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larkim
That's true of course, but in the men's marathon, for example, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone at the sharp end ability wise who isn't sponsored by Nike; and in reality, if a shoe is a Nike beater, is it really that likely that it will decimate the VF / AF performance levels in the same way that their shoes appear to have done to the competition?
Honestly, I'd have loved it if some small scale shoe manufacturer had found the Nike magic first and suddenly podiums were being topped by Saucony / On / Hoka / Brooks runners instead who had a "4%" advantage over the rest. If that had happened, either Nike would have successfully copied PDQ or (if patented) Nike would have bought the company!!
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Nike Pegasus
Jul 2024