Money, It’s Gotta Be The Shoes

Running is cheap, right? You don’t even need specialized equipment, just your old sneakers and a straight stretch of pavement, and certainly not four graphs, 12 rods and a boat.

But if you want to do it at the top level – collegiately or beyond – it does require a substantial investment. There’s specialized nutrition, trainers, cryotherapy, and all sorts of things that middle-aged paunchy guys like me can’t comprehend.

And there are shoes. Specialized shoes. 

In fact, while the current crop of shoes may not have much processing power as compared to your graph, they’re still creating a ruckus. At this fall’s Berlin Marathon, a woman from Ethiopia beat the previous marathon record by over 2 minutes. At the subsequent Chicago Marathon, a Kenyan man likewise set a new record, and came close to the two-hour threshold. They wore “super shoes” from Adidas and Nike, respectively.

Just about every top-tier runner in each of those races wore some variation of the carbon-plated kicks, so there wasn’t necessarily an advantage vis a vis the other runners. Still, they’re controversial. 

Proponents say that new records bring much-needed attention to the sport.

Opponents argue that the artificial leaps are bad for competitive running and often assert that records set with them are in a way artificial or should come with an asterisk.

Sound familiar? 

If you know what “FFS” stands for, it should be.

Would an FFS-aided catch of 150 pounds of Falcon largemouths or 120 pounds of St. Lawrence River smallmouths excite fans and generate interest, or would it sully the sport? Could it do both? No one’s questioning that the technology can benefit most if not all competitors, but rather whether it lessens the sport. As I’ve written multiple times before, I’m still agnostic on it, leaning toward no limitations on electronics – for the time being, until I’m conclusively shown that it has an anti-competitive or anti-conservation impact.

I’ll be honest, though. While I’m far from an FFS expert, I’ve really enjoyed messing around with it over the past few weeks. I’ve caught multiple fish that I otherwise never would have known were there, just panning around as I went down a stretch of riprap or along the bank of a cove. I’m just glad that my Livescope seems to be pretty resilient, too. The “super shoes,” o the other hand, are effectively meant to last a single race. The naysayers rightfully point out that this is wasteful and potential environmentally harmful, but I’m guessing many of them would feel the same way about the shoes if they could be reused or recycled.