Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst tested a prototype marathon shoe that PUMA created with computational design, and found it improved running economy by up to 3.6%. This overcomes a 1 to 1.5% improvement plateau in the advanced footwear technology (AFT) space since these so-called “super shoes” hit the road in 2016.
For this study, funded by PUMA, Hoogkamer and his team evaluated running economy of four AFT models, without further involvement of PUMA: the Nike Alphafly 3, Adidas Adios Pro Evo 1, PUMA Fast-R 2 and the prototype of the PUMA Fast-R 3.
They found that the PUMA prototype is 3.15% to 3.62% more economical than the other popular AFT models. “These are substantial differences,” says Hoogkamer. “You’re talking about minutes off a marathon time, and I train years to shave a minute off of my marathon time.”