Well, the marathon record has been broken 53 times since the early 1900s. So, there are a lot of factors at play. Better training, better nutrition, better tactics, and, yes, better shoes.

The advancements in shoes have made a measurable impact, but there are lots of optimizations being worked on.

Performance enhancing drugs seem to help break records in sports from baseball to cycling.

There’s info in one of the other threads about better carb intake too.

But yeah at this point, “it’s the shoes, stupid” should defo be the main part of the conversation.

For a while it was all about getting the lightest shoes, because picking up heavy shoes slowed you down. Then the energy return (pebax foam, carbon plates/rods) became the main focus because the weight didn't matter as much when the shoe was literally springy. Surely this is now going to spark a race for the optimal balance between weight and energy return.

Do these new Adidas shoes have anything major over the Vaporfly shoes? Maybe they are a bit lighter?

I think the big story here may be the nutrition science to get these guys to absorb a lot of carbs during the run, more than the shoes.

There is a whole class of running shoes banned from various competitions.

Essentially the argument given was too much advantage came from the shoes and they didn't want racing to be about shoe technology development.

Purism is extremism about a thing. Pick a thing, be purely about that thing.

I used to love F1 for the tech that would filter down to my car in ten years time, but that is not a thing anymore.

I for one love the advances in technology in something as supposedly simple as a shoe. And maybe I'll get to use it on a hike in a few years.