Briefs · Frontier Science
Feet-stiffening socks could help you run further for longer
Your socks are about to become performance equipment. Sorry, feet.
Carbon-plated shoes already improve running economy by cutting the metabolic expenditure of running — the energy it costs to keep moving. Now researchers have put the same trick into socks: carbon-fibre plates in the soles, held by elastic bands that anchor the plate to a strap under the toe and a calf band, transferring force between toe, ankle and calf while you run. A foot is not a foot, it is a spring that forgot its job.
On a treadmill, at several speeds, runners wore the plated socks, the same socks without the plates, and ordinary sports socks. The stiffened feet cut running cost by 2.8 per cent compared with plain sports socks, and by 2.7 per cent compared with the unplated version. And the prize is 2.8 per cent!
It is Cinderella, except the glass slipper is carbon fibre and the prince is a personal best — and if the socks work, every drawer in the country will soon contain technology that needs washing (sorry, laundry).
Conclusion: your socks are not clothing. They are equipment.
Read the original at New Scientist
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