After 23 year old Kevlin Kiptum’s historic feat of breaking the marathon world record and missing the sub 2 hr marathon by a whisker, the spotlight has now turned to his shoes. The shoes which he wore was Nike Alphafly 3. How much of a contribution the shoes has on the the athlete is a debatable topic but one cannot deny that this nike supershoe had a large role to play in this win. At the outset the shoe looks ugly. But the devil is in the detail. There is upper sole and then there’s lot more. The upper sole is made of Nikes legendary Atomknit material. The Atomknit branding can be seen near the last eyelet. Atomknit is a fabric used in upper body of the shoe which is steamed and stretched.This fabric is more breathable and thats why when you hold the shoe parallel to your eye you would be able to see through to the other side. The fabric colour as seen on the graphics on Nike’s website is cream and the Nike swoosh is read with black border and the shorter swoosh on the other side is blue with black border. Next comes the midsole. This is where the Alphafly 3 differs from the previous two versions release in 2020 and prior.
Screenshot from US Patent website
The most strikign technology which is used in the shoe is the fitting of carbon plate before the mid sole in the shoe. The carbon plate technology which is around 15 years old and was revealed by Adidas in their running shoes Adistar is being widely used by many shoe manufacturers today. The technology is pretty simple. Whenever the runner foot falls on the ground, there is a loss of energy into the ground. The carbon plate reduces the time the foot spends on the ground and the energy which is saved by this goes back to the runners foot. With this the runner gets less tired in the long runs. When Kelvin was asked if he felt tired after the race, to everyone’s surprise he said no.
How is carbon fibre plate made ?
Carbon plate is made up of material known as FRP which stands for Fibre Reinforced Polymer composites. This material is strong, durable and above all it is lightweight. The composite is widely used in cars, boats, aerospace and many other product where the key is to provide material which is durable and lightweight. The carbon fibre is very thin and is inserted above the midsole of shoe. There are some shoe manufacturers where the plate is detachable. One such shoe brand is Onemix Wing Armour marathon training shoes.
Eliud and Nike Alphafly Ne%T