World Athletics launches shoe-check app to help athletes follow new regulations

Monaco: Facing a challenge from technically enhanced shoe innovations that have resulted in super-fast times, and shattering records, the 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.

With technically improved shoes like Nike's Vaporfly and the recently-launched Adidas' ‘super shoes' that have resulted in record-breaking spree, the World Athletics, the global body for track and field, has introduced new regulations to curtail the spread of such shoes.

The current athletic shoe regulations were introduced in 2022 to establish a transparent, objective, and fair set of requirements, and to protect the integrity of the sport, the World Athletics informed in a release on Thursday.

The shoes that athletes can wear under these regulations vary between disciplines, with stack height, embedded plates and availability all taken into account. Specific regulations are in place for the development of shoes, which are prototypes that a shoe manufacturer would like to test in competitions before introducing them to the retail market.

It is the responsibility of athletes to make sure that the shoes they are wearing in competition are approved and can be worn in the specific discipline, the release said.

The new shoe check application allows users to search for a specific shoe and provides all the relevant information once the model name or model number of the shoe is entered.

Being able to search the model number – if provided by the manufacturer – is particularly useful for athletes and officials, given that the model name is not always printed on the shoe. A picture of the shoe is also shown, allowing for easy verification that the correct shoe has been selected (only the colourway may be different).

"In addition to the search functionality for individual shoes, the shoe check application also provides a full list showing all shoes that have been approved. For a more condensed overview, the list can be filtered by the individual manufacturers," the release informed.

Currently, more than 700 shoes – including spikes and road footwear – are listed in the application. Once a shoe is searched, the application will confirm whether it is approved and if so, for which disciplines.

It will also state whether there is a timescale on that approval or a restriction on which competitions the shoe can be worn in. In addition, it will list whether the shoe is a development shoe, in which case it cannot be worn at World Athletics Series events or Olympic Games. For a publicly available shoe, the date from which it is available for purchase will be shown.

The application is web-based and can be accessed easily, thus making it possible for stakeholders at the grassroots level to avoid using technically-enhanced shoes that do not confirm to regulations.