{"id":5466,"date":"2020-02-27T11:30:28","date_gmt":"2020-02-27T11:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/?p=5466"},"modified":"2021-06-15T16:24:00","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T15:24:00","slug":"are-nikes-vaporfly-trainers-the-emperors-new-shoes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/are-nikes-vaporfly-trainers-the-emperors-new-shoes\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Nike\u2019s Vaporfly trainers the Emperor\u2019s new shoes?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em><strong>Dr Phil Hurst discusses why placebo-controlled trials are needed to determine whether Nike Vaporfly trainers improve performance. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>We are in a golden age of road running. In the past 6-months,\n10 world records have been broken, including the men and women\u2019s marathon. While\nbreaking a world record is an incredible feat of human performance, the media\nattention of recent world record holders is not directed towards their physical\nand psychological ability, but of the shoes they wear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The previous 10 world records in road running have been\nachieved while wearing Nike\u2019s Vaporfly trainers. These trainers have caused\ncontroversy, with some stating that such trainers undermine the ethos of\nsport. Nike have engineered a trainer that includes a carbon fibre plate\nand energy-returning foam that is purported to decrease the energetic cost of\nrunning, which in turn, allows an athlete to run faster for longer. However, although\nthis piece of engineering may be a significant factor into the effectiveness of\nthe trainer, one factor that has gone unnoticed is the athlete\u2019s belief that\nthe trainer improves performance. This is often referred to as the placebo\neffect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The placebo effect is a desirable outcome resulting from a\nperson\u2019s expected response to an ergogenic aid (e.g. sport supplements, ice\nbaths and sports clothing). In our recent review of the placebo effect\non sport performance, we found that an athlete\u2019s belief can significantly\nimprove performance by on average 5.1%. It is therefore likely that athletes\u2019\nwearing the Nike Vaporfly are benefitting not just from the engineering of the\ntrainer, but from their belief that it improves performance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A question exists as to how much the placebo effect\ninfluences the effectiveness of Nike\u2019s Vaporfly trainers. To help answer this,\na need exists for appropriately controlled research. Placebo controlled,\ndouble-blind, randomised controlled trials are regarded as the gold standard\nfor ascertaining the effectiveness of ergogenic aids. Currently, no study\nexists that has used this design to evaluate the effectiveness of Nike\u2019s\nVaporfly trainers. While a lack of evidence is different to evidence of lack of\neffect, caution is needed when making claims that a trainer is the reason for\nthe number of world records being broken when there is a paucity of\nplacebo-controlled evidence. There is a threat that without such evidence, an\nexaggeration of the effectiveness of the trainer will over emphasise its\nbenefit and result in athletes believing that in order to compete with their\ncompetitors, they need to purchase a pair. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like the Emperor\u2019s New Clothes, when the sport science\ncommunity does not conduct appropriate research into the effectiveness of ergogenic\naids, we run the risk of ignoring what exactly underpins the improvements in\nperformance. Without placebo-controlled trials to determine effectiveness,\nthere is a risk that the Emperor is wearing a pair of Nike Vaporfly trainers\nthat are no better than the placebo effect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Phil Hurst is a Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology within the School of Human and Life Sciences. Phil\u2019s interests include the placebo effect on sport performance and its impact on the effectiveness of banned performance-enhancing substances. More discussion about Phil\u2019s research can be found on Twitter: @phil_hurst1<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr Phil Hurst discusses why placebo-controlled trials are needed to determine whether Nike Vaporfly trainers improve performance. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":151654,"featured_media":5473,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3902,342],"tags":[3349,3345,3334,3330,493,3350,3333,346,3342,3338],"class_list":["post-5466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","category-sport","tag-carbon-fibre-plate","tag-controversy","tag-marathon","tag-nike-vaporfly","tag-placebo-effect","tag-running","tag-shoes","tag-sport","tag-trainers","tag-world-record"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"authorName":"Emma Grafton-Williams","featuredImage":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/437\/2020\/02\/nike-vaporfly-trainers.jpg","postExcerpt":"Dr Phil Hurst discusses why placebo-controlled trials are needed to determine whether Nike Vaporfly trainers improve performance. 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