As more people take to the streets for fitness, fun, competition, inspiration and more, the front-runners remain the same. The US-based Nike and German Adidas and Puma together control most of the global market. But the race for the best-ever running shoe continues.

Technically, sports shoes as we known them can be traced back to the 1880s. Rubber used by tyre-makers began to be used in the outer soles of shoes meant for use on sports fields. These early sports shoes were essentially canvas-and-rubber plimsolls. By the 1910s, they had acquired higher tops, thicker soles, and laces. By the 1930s, the rubber had been so perfected that you could sneak up on someone without them ever knowing, and the nickname “sneakers” was born (or so one legend goes).

By the 1940s and ’50s, a range was beginning to form — different designs for basketball players, boxers, runners. The general public picked a pair and used them for everything. Then, in 1985, Nike released its first Air Jordans, based on a pair made specifically for basketball legend Michael Jordan, and marked the beginning of the craze for limited-edition kicks.

All this while, behind the scenes and out of view, the interiors of the sports shoe had been changing, across the board from foam to sole. New science began to reveal why even the everyday user might be better off with different shoes for different kinds of exercise, even for the difference between walking, jogging and running. The running shoe is now an entirely separate sub-genre of sports shoe. Researchers are consulting on design, runners are pitching in with early testing. See how the tech has advanced, and where it’s headed next.

The battle over the midsole: The purpose of a running shoe is to help a runner run more safely and more efficiently. It does this by providing forward push, bounce-back, comfort and durability, all of which helps one make it further and faster, while expending less energy.

The single biggest factor in enabling a shoe to do all this is the combination of the midsole and outsole. Find the perfect cocktail of materials for these two elements and a shoe is instantly, significantly, improved.

Nike, Adidas, Puma and the Japanese Asics have been racing, for years, to make the finest midsole. Materials used now include thermoplastic elastomers (TPE) and thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU) that are lighter, more flexible and more responsive. Nike uses Pebax, a foam with aerospace applications that it is extra-light and robust, paired with air-pocket insets for better cushioning. Puma has been experimenting with bead-like inserts for a shock-absorbing spring reaction that offers more comfortable bounce-back.

Even shoes in the ₹8,000 price range feature some of these innovations; most of these features (including the carbon fibre plate inserts) are available in shoes priced at ₹12,000 onwards.

Give-back: Wouter Hoogkamer, a biomechanics researcher and assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, led a study in 2018 that showed that embedding a stiff plate in the midsole “lowered the energetic cost of running by 4% on average”. Puma has since consulted with Hoogkamer on its Deviate Nitro shoes with a carbon fibre plate (priced between ₹9,000 and ₹15,000).

Why carbon fibre? This extremely lightweight material has extensive applications in cars and aircraft. In running shoes, a layer often as thin as 1 mm is integrated within the midsole foam. This insert absorbs energy from the runner’s foot and relays it back to the foot in a part-forward-part-upward direction, helping propel the person forward and returning energy that was otherwise lost through the calf muscles.

Mesh over fabric: For the outer body of the shoe, traditional fabric has been replaced by variations of knit or mesh, materials that are tauter and more stable, offer a sock-like feeling around the foot and are more breathable. This makes them comfortable over longer durations, especially in warm climates. And the tyre companies are in the game again. One of the first to assist sports-shoe makers was Goodyear. Now, Adidas’s Adizero Adios Pro 2 has a rubber outsole developed by German mobility tech company Continental, best known for its car tyres. Word is, these shoes incorporate some of Continental’s extensive research on rubber compounds, as well as advanced tread designs.

Next stop: Adidas has worked with American 3D printing tech company Carbon and referred to data collected from runners to develop a 3D printed midsole that allows precise customised tuning of the lattice pattern for the single unit midsole and outsole. Finding the right lattice-structure pattern reportedly helps the sole compress better as one runs, redirecting decompression energy towards the forefoot to assist movement. The Adidas 4DFWD was launched in August and is priced at ₹20,000.

How much of this do you need? That depends on how fit you are, how much you run, and on what surfaces. The science shows that the right shoes can help you run with less impact on the joints, burn more calories with less effort, and run longer more comfortably. The more advanced shoes reportedly last longer too. But there is also the counter-argument... that the best way to run is as Nature intended: barefoot.