In the ever expanding Super Shoe market, Rock Fight's Colin True misses the simplicity of the minimalist movement.
Did you hear about the guy who was recently disqualified from a race he won because he wore illegal shoes?
Rajpaul Pannu finished first at Nevada’s Jackpot 100 Mile Road Championships but was stripped of his win after it was discovered that he had competed in shoes that exceeded the maximum stack height allowed. He wore the Hoka Skyward X, which has a 48mm stack height in the heel and 43mm in the forefoot—apparently making it 8mm taller than allowed under USA Track & Field rules.
Look, I don’t know why we have to limit competitors when it comes to stack height. The USATF is the governing body for all things running, so if they have rules around this stuff, I’m sure it’s for good reason.
But if nothing else, it shows how complicated running shoes have gotten over the past decade or two. Ever since cushioning won over minimalism.
There was a brief window around 2010 when minimally cushioned footwear was the accepted trend. We all read Born to Run and decided we needed to be just like the Tarahumara and run as nature intended. Then people started getting hurt, and we realized there was actually some upside to cushioning in our footwear. Along came Altra, which told us that cushioning was okay, but we should eliminate heel-to-forefoot drop. Shortly after that, Hoka arrived, said “hold my beer,” and showed us that there were benefits to adding even more cushioning—even if their shoes made you look ready to audition for a Spice Girls tribute band.
The running footwear innovation train kept rolling right into recent times, unleashing a veritable flood of “super shoes.” Defined mostly by the inclusion of carbon fiber plates and high-energy return midsole foams, super shoes typically cost more than $250 (with many upwards of $300) and come with the promise of shaving life-altering seconds off any runner’s PR. In my research, I found 21 running brands that currently make a “super shoe.” Are there more? Yeah, probably.
Technology, it seems, is not limited to zeros and ones or increasingly capable Star Trek-like devices we can carry in our pockets. And while I don’t normally consider myself a Luddite, I do prefer the days when our footwear had fewer features and benefits.
The argument in favor of a pair of New Balance Minimus shoes or even (gasp) a pair of Vibram FiveFingers (aesthetics aside) just makes more sense to me because it really came down to a simple premise: your feet work a certain way, and we should simply empower that.
Much like the technical developments in the cycling world that have come to define mountain bikes, running shoes are now increasingly feature-rich, cost-prohibitive, and bound by rules—like they’re a freakin’ Mogwai. Rules that, apparently, can cost you the podium when broken.
I suppose I just believe there are diminishing returns with the constant “more” being added to the gear that powers our outdoor pursuits. And I’d like to think someone like Rajpaul Pannu might agree with me… but he probably doesn’t.
I mean with 48mm of super soft foam between him and the ground? That shit may be illegal, but it probably feels real nice.
Colin True is the founder of Rock Fight and host of the titularly named podcast The Rock Fight. When not talking about the outdoor industry you can sometimes find him out actually doing outdoorsy stuff.