World Athletics launch new 'super shoes' check application

World Athletics launch new 'super shoes' check application

Abigael Wafula 18:20 - 06.06.2024

World Athletics has launched a new shoe check application to make it even easier for athletes, coaches, officials, and shoe manufacturers to monitor the compliance of competition footwear.

Coaches, athletes, officials, and shoe manufacturers will now find it easy to certify shoes as World Athletics has launched a new shoe check application.

Recently, footwear companies have been manufacturing super shoes with tough competition between Adidas and Nike but World Athletics has a set of standard that a shoe for competition should have. The current rules were introduced in 2022 to establish a transparent, objective and fair set of requirements, and to protect the integrity of the sport.

As per World Athletics, the shoes to be worn by athletes vary between disciplines, with stack height, embedded plates and availability all considered. World Athletics has set aside regulations for prototypes that a shoe manufacturer would like to test in competitions before introducing them to the retail market.

However, the decision does not solely lie with the manufacturers since the athletes have to ensure that the shoes they are wearing in competition are approved and can be worn in the specific discipline.

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The new shoe check application gives users the ability to search for a specific shoe and provides all the relevant information once the model name or model number of the shoe is entered. Athletes and officials will find it useful to search for the manufacturer.

With the new website, the picture of the shoe is also shown, allowing for easy verification that the correct shoe has been selected. The application also provides a full list showing all shoes that have been approved.

World Athletics noted that more than 700 shoes are listed in the application and once a shoe is searched, the application will confirm whether it is approved and it will also state whether there is a timescale on that approval or a restriction on which competitions the shoe can be worn in.

The website will also list whether the shoe is a development shoe, in which case it cannot be worn at World Athletics Series events or Olympic Games. World Athletics noted that the athletic shoe regulations are available for download from the Book of Rules section of the World Athletics website under ‘Book C: Competition’.