How The Super Shoes Movement Affects The Future Of Safety

Over the past few years, one of the biggest topics in the world of footwear is the concept of “super shoes”, which are shoes that through careful technology allow people to transcend their limitations, with technology that could reach trade workwear and help boost safety.

A “super shoe” is typically defined as a piece of footwear that boosts athletic performance, most commonly seen in the world of endurance running.

The most famous example of a super shoe is the Nike Vaporfly line of running shoes, which use carefully designed foam soles with a carbon-fibre plate in the middle to provide an extra spring to an athlete’s step, reducing the amount of energy it takes to run at a particular speed.

Whilst most trainers are unsuitable for the workplace, such advances could inspire a similar approach to improve the grip of safety shoes, reduce their weight without compromising their structural integrity, and reduce fatigue that could potentially lead to accidents.

However, there are concerns in the field of athletics that such new technologies could constitute an unfair advantage, particularly as it became clear that talented athletes that did not use these technical advancements were being left behind, a concept known as technology doping.

This issue parallelled a controversy in 2008 surrounding the LZR Racer swimsuit, which boosted a swimmer’s performance to the point that 98 per cent of the medals won at that year’s Olympic Games were achieved by athletes wearing the suit.

However, whilst the rules surrounding super shoes have been tightened, there will invariably continue to be a developmental race to create the best specialised footwear for each given discipline, and these technologies trickle down from elite sport to every other field.

Ultimately, there is the possibility that the traditional steel toe-cap boot may be replaced by a lighter, more bespoke protective material that is ultimately more practical and effective than what has come before.