Nike and Adidas have both hit headlines in the last weeks with efforts to make shoes that help athletes to run a marathon in less than two hours. Adidas has been working on it with the Sub 2 program, leading to the launch of the Adizero Sub2 shoes used by Wilson Kipsang at the Tokyo Marathon. He claimed the win in two hours, three minutes and 58 seconds. The Adizero Sub 2, which should become available later this year, was described as the debut of the Boost Light innovation, providing the return of the Boost outsole with lighter foam. A few days later, Nike introduced its own Zoom Vaporfly Elite, which is part of the U.S. group's own Breaking 2 project. The group is organizing an attempt to try and break the two-hour barrier at a car racing loop outside Monza, Italy. The group indicated that Eliud Kipchoge, Lelisa Desisa and Zersenay Tadese would be wearing the Nike Zoom Vaporfly Elite and its Nike ZoomX midsole, with a distinctive forefoot stack height and a carbon fiber plate. However, the launches raised questions in specialist and other newspapers about the potential for innovation to bring an unfair advantage to marathon runners. Nike is fully confident that its shoes adhere to the specifications of the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF). A spokesman for the IAAF told The Guardian that, due to speculation and developments in shoe technology, the organization would discuss shoe approval processes as defined by the competition rules as part of the agenda of the IAAF Technical Committee in Spain later this month, to check if it should change or review approvals.

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