If you see anyone jogging around Newcastle in these fancy pink running shoes, they're cheating.
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Well, cheating might be too strong a word. But those wearing the Nike Vaporfly range are definitely gaining an advantage. At a cost of $320, Topics reckons you'd want to be gaining some kind of advantage.
Nike, in fact, admits that they're the "fastest shoe we've ever made", which can improve running efficiency by 4 per cent. Research found runners using Vaporflys were running 4 to 5 per cent faster than they would in an average running shoe.
As such, some have described the shoes as constituting a form of "mechanical or technological doping".
The shoes have super special and concealed carbon plates and patented springy foam that apparently make joggers feel like they're "running on trampolines".
The kerfuffle over the special shoes led World Athletics to consider rule changes. The regulations state that a shoe must not provide "an unfair advantage".
The five fastest marathons in history have been run in the past year or so by athletes wearing versions of the Vaporfly shoes.
Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge was wearing a modified version of the shoes when he became the first athlete to run a marathon in less than two hours in October.
With the Tokyo Olympics coming up and athletes breaking world records wearing the shoes, some have urged the world governing body for athletics to ban them.
Others say technology is part and parcel of the sport.
Nike says it respects the spirit of the rules and does not create any running shoes that "return more energy than the runner expends".
The governing body's review panel was expected to announce its decision overnight.
Leaks to the press before the decision was announced suggested the panel would not impose a blanket ban on the shoes over fears of a legal challenge from Nike.
The new rules are expected to restrict the thickness of the shoes' soles. And some modified versions could be banned from elite competition.
As for ordinary folks running around Newcastle who are desperate to improve their personal best, it's probably worth forking out the $320.
Then again, you could always try barefoot running. Whatever happened to that fad?
Kangaroo Leather
Nike and adidas have been taken to task for using kangaroo leather to make football boots.
The Centre for a Humane Economy pinpointed 65 models of boots made from kangaroo skins.
It has written to Nike and adidas - the two biggest brands in sporting footwear - asking them to eliminate kangaroo products from their supply chains.
The centre added that other manufacturers including Asics, Lotto, Mizumo, Puma and Umbro also sell football boots with kangaroo leather.
"Nike and adidas have already made great progress in dramatically reducing leather in their supply chains and moved toward lighter, durable fabrics," centre president Wayne Pacelle said.
"Eliminating kangaroo leather should not be difficult for companies given the high-performance synthetic and plant-based materials coming out of their labs."
The centre said adidas had won praise for using ocean plastic to make shoes.
And Diadora, an Italian manufacturer, recently announced it would be kangaroo-free by the end of this year.