Based on the infographic above, it should be sufficiently clear that the Nike Vaporfly’s are the fastest running shoes that have ever been made.
Unlike so many sports companies that over-promise and under-deliver when boasting of a product’s benefits, with the Nike Vaporfly’s, the hype is backed by science. Study after study has found that these shoes are able to deliver on the claim of a 4% increase in running efficiency. This is exactly why marathon records across the worlds are crumbling at a rapid pace.
This is not to say that the athletes who wear these shoes are not freakishly talented individuals. You cannot win a marathon in record breaking time without being a phenomenal physical specimen. At the same time, the possibility of a sub-2 hour marathon would not exist without these shoes. Ultimately, for an endurance runner to reach his or her fastest time on race day, it is a pre-requisite to have Nike Vaporfly’s attached to their feet.
Full List of Records Broken In Nike Vaporfly Running Shoes
Fastest Unofficial Marathon
Eluid Kipchoge
01:59:38 – Vienna 2019
Fastest Men's Marathon
Eluid Kipchoge
02:01:39 – Berlin – 2018
Fastest Women's Marathon
Brigid Kosgei
02:14:04 – Chicago 2019
Fastest Men's Half Marathon
Geoffrey Kamworor
00:58:01 – Denmark 2019
Fastest Women's Half Marathon
Ababel Yeshaneh
01:04:31 – UAE 2020
Fastest Men's 5K (Road)
Joshua Cheptegei
00:12:51 – Monaco 2020
Second Fastest Men's Marathon
Kenenisa Bekele
02:01:41 – Berlin 2019
Third Fastest Men's Marathon
Eluid Kipchoge
02:02:37 – London 2019
Fourth Fastest Men's Marathon
Birhanu Legese
02:02:48 – Berlin 2019
Fifth Fastest Men's Marathon
Mosinet Geremew
02:02:55 – London 2019
Dubai Marathon Record Men
Getaneh Molla
02:03:34 – Dubai 2019
Dubai Marathon Record Women
Ruth Chepngetich
02:17:08 – Dubai 2019
Side note – Wikipedia are incorrectly assigning the third fastest marathon ever to Birhanu Legese, 02:02:48 Berlin 2019. In reality, the third fastest time was set by Eliud Kipchoge when he set the London Marathon record in a time of 02:02:37 in 2019.
Furthermore, this list is likely to grow once the world starts to recover from Covid-19 and marathons become viable again. When this happens, we will obviously update this post, given that more records are likely to be broken when the marathon season finally resumes.