Dustin Joubert on Supershoes

Endurance Innovation

Endurance Innovation is now on Patreon! Have a peek at our page and show us some love.

• 1:30 meet Dustin Joubert
• 3:00 Dustin’s first experience with modern ‘supershoes’
• 5:30 all the published research is on the Nike Vaporfly line
• 6:30 what is a ‘supershoe’?
  • Carbon plates increase rigidity
  • More / thicker cushioning
  • New, higher compliance materials
• 8:15 defining the primary metric used to compare shoes: running economy
• 11:45 the Study
• 19:45 the results
  • Top-tier tested shoes: Nike Alphafly, Vaporfly, Asics Metaspeed Sky
  • Mid-tier shoes: Saucony Endorfphine Pro, NB RC Elite
  • No-effect shoes: Hoka Rocket X, Brooks Hyperion Elite 2
• 22:00 is it possible to correlate midsole foam material to performance in this study?
• 25:00 which shoe should I buy?
• 28:45 field testing shoes
• 30:30 translating running economy improvements to race performance
  • ~1:1 improvement in race times vs improvement in economy at slower speeds (~14kph)
  • ~⅔ : 1 improvement in race times vs improvement in economy at faster speeds
  • With the caveat that economy itself may not increase as much at slower speeds
• 36:00 what’s next in shoe tech?

Dustin's Supershoe paper preprint.

Follow Dustin's Instagram account on the latest on his formal and case study work.