When Kenyan runner Hellen Obiri takes to the track in Paris this summer to equal or better her previous silver medal, she will be sporting a pair of “spray-on” running shoes.
With the support needed to aid in the acceleration and speed of Obiri’s dashing, the shoes are the lightest running shoes ever, perhaps shaving those few milliseconds off a running time that would turn a silver into a gold.
Zurich-based firm, On, which invented the Cloudboom Strike LS running shoe, says its most important gauge of success or failure is whether the athletes wearing their shoes win.
Inventor Johannes Voelchert came up with the idea during Halloween, when he watched a child spray spider webs all over a bush with a hot glue gun-like toy.
Composed of a carbon fiber sole without a heel cap or toe spring, the Cloudboom’s upper is made of a thermoplastic that sets and binds in just 3 minutes.
The material, which it dubs LightSpray, has “the potential… to move us towards a more sustainable, circular future,” said Marc Maurer, On’s co-CEO, in a press release.
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Australian middle-distance runner Olli Hoare and Irish 1,500-meter runner Luke McCann have both previously used the Cloudboom Strike, and On hopes the pair will choose them again when they run in the Olympics this year.
The shoes aren’t for Olympians alone, however, and anyone with $300 in their pocket can get a pair sprayed to measure.
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With spray-on dresses already being sported by supermodels on Milan runways, and spray-on sneakers sending runners flying down the track, it’s an interesting exercise to contemplate what other things the future will reduce into a spray format—spray-on furniture anyone?
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