Super-spikes
Evidence: moderate
The track equivalent of super-shoes: a real but smaller and harder-to-quantify benefit, with the foam again the key element, not the plate.
Super-spikes apply super-shoe technology to the track: a thick slab of PEBA-class foam and, in some models, a carbon plate. Elite middle- and long-distance track records have fallen in waves since around 2020 in these shoes, though that coincides with improved pacing technology and super-shoe-aided training, so the causal share is confounded.
The benefit is real but smaller and harder to measure than on the road. Advanced-footwear spikes improved running economy by roughly 1.8 to 2.1% over traditional spikes in one study, and a validated race-pace protocol found gains around 1.6 to 2.1% for some models, larger steps being the source (Bertschy et al. 2024). A key caveat: economy testing cannot fully capture the benefit in 800 m to 5000 m events, which are substantially anaerobic, so race comparisons are needed (Healey et al. 2022).
As with road shoes, the foam matters more than the plate. A foam-only spike beat a plated one for economy in one comparison, and adding a plate improved top-end speed while slightly worsening economy in another (Wu et al. 2025). World Athletics caps track-spike stack height at 20 mm (World Athletics shoe regulations).
Who they are for
Worth it on the track, and only there
Super-spikes matter for athletes racing on the track from roughly 800 m to 10,000 m, where the foam-and-plate combination has a measurable, if modest, benefit. For the recreational runner whose racing is on the road, they are irrelevant; road super-shoes are the relevant tool. Within the track range, the individual variation is large, so trial a model in training and a low-stakes race before trusting it on a target day, and remember a foam-led spike can beat a plated one for you. World Athletics caps track-spike stack height at 20 mm, so the foam slab is thinner than a road shoe’s, and the benefit correspondingly smaller.