The Adidas Springblade athletic shoes are quite a different and strange running shoe. It has only been in the market for about a year to varying opinions. The main feature of the Springblade are, as the brand suggests, individual blades that produce a spring action for both cushioning and energy return to move the runner ahead while running. The footwear was developed over the 6 years and had been put through extensive evaluation for the resilience, comfort, and energy in order that the different versions would fit runners of all types. They just do not match all runners and weren’t actually designed for running long distance which is what some of the critics of the shoes have tried to use the shoe for. They are probably more suited to runs on the track or trails, with shorter runs on the road.

There are various types of the Springblade out there. You have the Adidas Springblade Drive that is created to be there all-rounder running shoe form this range. It offers the ESM-mesh technology which is supposed to help improve the breathability as well as comfort while at the same time staying very conforming to the form of the feet. The Drive is suggested to be the best option for those seeking a more all purpose cross-training shoe and simply want one shoe that addresses all of their requirements. The next shoe in the line-up is the Adidas Springblade Razor which is more firm than the Drive so that it supports the foot better in place. It is devised for runners using the track alot more for faster training as opposed to the road. The last shoe in the selection is just called the Springblade. It is considered the workhorse of the Adidas range. The shoe features a tech-fit upper construction that does trade-off some levels of breathability for further flexibility and comfort. An additional different feature of this range is when you order the footwear through the website, you can personalize it by incorporating personalized reaches.

Abebe Bikila was a marathon runner from Ethiopia, winning dual Olympic gold medals: Rome in 1960 and Tokyo in 1964. He died in 1973 at the age of forty one from troubles after having a car accident. There’s a arena in Addis Ababa named after him. Google recognized him with one of Google’s doodles on which would have been his 81st birthday on 7 August 2013.

1960 Olympic Marathon in Rome:
Abebe was a last minute substitute in the Ethiopian squad for that Olympics. He had no athletic shoes to run in and Adidas, the official sponsor only had a few pairs left that didn’t fit him, and so he competed in the marathon without running shoes (he previously had been running without running shoes). He won the race in a time of 2hr 15min. After the marathon, responding to an inquiry as to why he ran without shoes, Bikila answered: “I wanted the whole world to know that my country, Ethiopia, has always won with determination and heroism.

1964 Olympic Marathon in Tokyo:
Forty days before the Olympics he was operated on for an serious appendicitis and at one stage it was believed that he would probably struggle to take part. Abebe went on to win this marathon in a world record time of 2hr 12min, being the first runner to win two Olympic marathons. Bikila was using Puma athletic shoes in the race (which he also competed in to finish 5th in the 1963 Boston Marathon).

Abebe is an easy to mild heel striker with some midfoot strikes as well. Despite that, he is not overstriding and did break a world record. Bikila is oftentimes held up by the barefoot running community as a idol for running the marathon without running shoes (as well as other elite athletes). Critics of that like to point out that he did compete faster and break a world record when using running shoes.

As part of Abebe’s legacy, the minimal running shoe maker, Vibram FiveFingers have the Bikila model of their range branded after abebe. Early in 2015, the descendants of Abebe Bikila announced they were beginning a law suit against Vibram for registering the ‘Bikila’ name without authorization.

The new entrant into the running footwear market is an original shoe from Enko. These new athletic shoes from France were first publicized in late 2014 and produced through a crowd funding project at Indiegogo at the beginning of 2015.

This shoe features mechanical spring loaded pieces that are included in the midsole. This particular design provides the shoe with increased shock absorption as well as energy return. This is advertised to help increase comfort as well as performance. The springs are interchangeable and are calculated depending on the weight of the runner. Calculations supplied by the company claim that the gains provided by the shock absorbers in terms of mechanical energy is somewhere between 6% and 14% based on the pace of the runner.

It’s not at all obvious if the shoe will likely be widely adopted at this point, but some issues have been expressed about the structure and how it might impact the lower limb biomechanics.