SportsShoes Blog

First things first - I’m an engineer OK - always have been always will be - I feel like I should apologise but I won’t - we built the world!!!

Anyway, as I’ve been trotting around recently I’ve been pondering over the question ‘how important is a light weight running shoe?’ Inov8 seem to think it’s very important and have based the names of their whole range around the weight of the shoes - 212, 285, 315, 320 etc etc etc.

All I know is that last year I decided to try a light weight road shoe - Nike’s skylon - and I think it’s fantastic. Since then I’ve also bought Inov8’s lightest shoe the X-talon 212 which is also superb. When you pick one of these up you really are struck by their weight or lack of it (strictly speaking - as an engineer - I should of course be refering to their mass - but that’s another story).

So, here’s something to think about.

This year in the 3 Peaks Race which is 24 miles long I intend to use Inov8’s 285 trail shoes instead of my old 320s. That’s a saving of a whopping 35 grams / shoe - probably about the weight of a pencil - nothing I hear you say. Quite, but what about this :-

Average running stride length = 1.5 to 2.0 meters - so let’s say 1.75m

3 Peaks = 24 miles which is 38624 meters

38624 meters / 1.75 = 22071 steps

Each step I’m not picking an extra 35 grams off the floor with my leg muscles so that’s a total saving over the course of the race of :-

773 kilograms or 3/4 of a tonne!!!

Now that’s got to help……what do you reckon?

If you don’t believe me ask Lloyd Scott - he took 5 days 8 1/2 hours to do the London marathon ‘cos his shoes weighed 11kg each!!!