A lot of comments are casting doubt on why “athletes” would be interested in this product. In the bike world, electric pedal assist bikes have become very popular. I have some family members who are avid cyclists. They do 100+ miles a week. As they have gotten older (60+) they were losing the ability to engage in social rides with their bike friends, but e-bikes have solved that issue by giving them just a small boost needed to keep up.
I could see this doing the same for older runners if the tech gets good enough.
“Athlete” != “professional athlete” the word encompasses a wide range of people and abilities.
Yeah, stuff like this is great for people who want to be outside and get some exercise, but aren't doing it for the purpose of competing with anyone.
I personally love hiking. I love going into nature, seeing new places, and being away from people. But there are times where I go for a slightly easier course instead of the one I actually want to do, because that few extra hours would absolutely wreck my body, especially since I'm often hiking in different places for several days. A little boost would be nice.
And with e-bikes, they're great for commuters and people just riding around their neighborhood. Lots of people ride them in my town for doing shopping trips. More affordable than a car, better for the environment, better for your health, and people who otherwise would take a car because they can't deal with pedaling uphill or long distances have a great alternative. I imagine powered shoes will be the same. People who feel like they're too old/out of shape to walk long distances often opt for cars, but if powered shoes give them the confidence to walk, it's far better to take an electronically assisted walk than to sit in a vehicle.
Pedantic, but the definition of an athlete is someone proficient in a physical activity. Quite some people barely use their bodies, unless we count moving in and out of a car.
Social rides? I think using a pedal assist bike would more readily lead to social ostracizing amongst friends who are using regular bikes. In my experience, at least among my circle of friends, if one person couldn't keep up they would rather shorten the distance than allowing that person to use an e-bike.
Electric pedal assist bikes are best suited for commuting and running errands, i.e. using the bike as a transportation tool, not a recreation tool.
This sounds like a gross generalization of cyclists—I hope everyone’s friends aren’t this petty! I’ve gone on plenty of rides on an e-bike/not on an e-bike with folks doing the opposite and have never felt ostracized or made others feel ostracized.
As other commenters posted, it gets even more people out on the paths who wouldn’t normally be able to keep up or might feel self-conscious, and I think that’s a really positive thing.
I must admit I don't interact with all kinds of cyclists. My circle of cyclists are the ones who like indoor cycling as much as going outdoors, and they almost always have a power meter and like to challenge themselves for power PRs, and they tend to be Strava Premium users.
It’s not about distance, it’s about burst. It sucks to go on a ride where you fall behind or have to all-out every time there’s a hill or you need to accelerate after a stoplight. May only need 50-100w, but makes it so people can keep up with the group and have a fun time.
Depends on how decent your friends are… one couple I know in particular, they both love MTB, but have different endurance levels, so with one having an e-bike it evens out nicely.
People with pedal-assist ebikes do more work and ride them for more distance than people with acoustic bikes.
Less gatekeeping, more celebration: imagine being Pogi and being able to crank 300 watts for hours on end. It would make touring the countryside a joy!
I don't think this is really true in general. When you climb a pass, the distance and elevation are fixed; the ebike riders buzzing by at twice your speed are not doing more work than you - they are avoiding some of the work inherent in the climb.
Are you sure? I am talking about 60 and 70 year olds who can ride a non e bike 50+ miles without stopping, but who need an e-bike to ride 50+ miles at the same pace as their younger friends. How is that person not athletic? Sure they aren’t winning any gold medals, but they are still clearly in the top 1% of their age group.
Surgery recovery, too. An older cyclist is going to need surgeries more often than a younger one, and will take much longer to recover. For some guys a high-end electric assist bike is how they stay riding with the A-group while they're recovering.
What value is a friendship or connection that can not withstand a few months of "for the next months I will ride with some slower group" or "I may join you for the beginning but I can not go all the way"?
What does "can not" even mean in this context? You could refuse to use an e-bike just like you could refuse to use an expensive bicycle.
Perhaps more interesting, a lot of people I know do train but don't push themselves to the limit. There is always something left in the tank. If their goal is to train to improve it's very [lets say] expensive. They invest a lot for small returns.
Now what if you could keep going if you would otherwise feel the need to quit?
I cycle for a good while then have to guess if ill still be able make it back home. Usually I bet on the safe side. When I bet to low I could add a few laps around the block but this requires an odd kind of discipline that I seem to lack.
Rather than grow it turns into a maintenance routine. If I wanted to do maintenance I would do much less and less frequent.
> You could refuse to use an e-bike just like you could refuse to use an expensive bicycle.
I don't know if we are talking about the same thing. I am taking the argument from OP about "people recovering from surgery might need electric assist to keep up with the A-group", and I'm questioning this need.
If someone wants to have some assistance, then by all means go ahead and use it. I'm just not seeing why someone would need to have this sort of assistance, unless they are just doing some poor post-hoc rationalization for their wants.
"Need in order to" is a common construction in English. It refers to a necessary condition, without placing any absolute constraints on the necessity. (Who's to say how the absolute "need" is defined? Do we need to live? Do we need good food, positive social interactions, exercise, shelter?)
Is a ski lift athletic, it's powered. Does it make skiers inherently UN-athletic?
I've got a 12 mile bike commute with a big ass hill at the end. If I do 0 miles a day/week/ever without an electric bike to get me up that hill, or I do 8 miles 2x a week with the electric, am I not more athletic? Are firemen who use a hose that is powered by a pump less athletic than those who carry water in buckets?
If I'm normally sitting stationary and I do anything movement at all am I not, in fact, pushing the limits of my body?
My mom was 80, and had a stroke. She couldn't lift her toes on the right side, making it hard to walk without tripping. These shoes are for "everyday athletes". Does this make her completely unathletic, or do they, in fact, allow her to become more athletic than she could be otherwise?
If it were solely about pushing the limits of the body, cyclists wouldn’t obsess about aerodynamics nearly as much and competitions would be about average watts over n-minutes or something like that.
Random point (and definitely not agreeing with OP), but Zwift (and probably others before) has brought on an age of watts/kg competitions.
And a lot of being aerodynamic on a bike is athleticism: you need to be flexible enough and appropriately trained to be in the right posture. The bike frames, skinsuits, etc, are all in the "marginal gains" territory.
All the "athlete" and "farther" and "faster" talk is all well and good, but kids are going to buy these, hack them, and use them to create the next generation of impossible dance moves.
I'd like such technology very much, as I lack about 80% of my calf muscles due to an auto immune disease. I can't walk without a (non powered) exo skeleton, and perhaps with these I can walk stairs again.
I completely agree my mother has MS and I have my own autoimmune issues. Something like this would be extremely helpful for people with debilitating diseases that cause muscle deterioration.
I'm a huge fan of "slightly better walking/running" kind of tech. Unfortunately, current technology lends itself to devices that are slightly too heavy. I have a pair of Shift Moonwalkers[0] that I was hoping would fulfill that role.
A motorcycle accident interrupted my fitness program and it took quite a lot of work to get back to where I am. During that period there were many times when I was (minorly) injured repeatedly since all my muscles were just not strong enough to do things and I wasn't disciplined about them.
I picked up some persistent tendinitis that is just healing with some physiotherapy. Things like this aren't terribly limiting in life but the primary problem is that a lot of the stuff you have to do is rest the appropriate body part! And to rest it, you need to not do things. I don't want to not do things. I want to do things while resting the appropriate part of my body.
And I bet as I get older, all this stuff will catch up. So anything that will extend mobility to my elderly years (still far away) is great. If I do the right things, my body will function well into my 80s and if the tech is there hopefully I'll walk around with my grandkids. All in all, I'm hoping that material science in batteries, motors, and frames and product design all do a big leap in this in the next 40 years. The market is likely there with our aging population.
For those of you who don’t “see the point” of a device like this, what you are failing to see is your own personal use case.
The use cases I can see for others are “anyone who might find this useful or fun”. To me, that means
1) people with medically compromised joints who would like to engage in experiences that their bodies don’t currently allow.
2) people who want to challenge themselves by making these joint additions add more resistance.
3) people who want more strength and/or power for any reason. “Fun” is a valid use case.
These joint enhancements exist for hips, knees, and with this, now ankles. The logical end for this is a powered exoskeleton (and, after that, power armor).
> 1) people with medically compromised joints who would like to engage in experiences that their bodies don’t currently allow.
And medically compromised muscles, nervous systems, etc. I know someone in that situation who loves scooters. They say it's like flying - they finally can move at will, instead of the lifelong difficulty and pain of walking.
I find running incredibly boring, because the scenery changes so damn slowly around you. I would happily put in the same effort for the same time, but go substantially faster to make it more fun.
Not sure I would buy this product, but I see more than 0 use for it.
> because the scenery changes so damn slowly around you
Have you considered running faster?
But seriously though, I’ve gotten pretty decent at running (3h15min marathon PR) and the difference between hiking a trail and running the same trail is kinda bonkers. These days I can run a trail in 2 hours that took me 6 hours to hike 10 years ago. Hits totally different. The whole dynamic changes.
Hiking feels immensely boring now
PS: If you run fast enough you don’t even notice the scenery.
Getting off topic but this is exactly why, after never running for fun in my life, I got into cycling (a hobby that admittedly can easily turn expensive even if it doesn't have to).
Instead of running 10km in an hour, I could bike from Silicon Valley to the ocean and back in 3-4 hours, and have views over city, hills, oceans, suburbia, etc.
> 1) people with medically compromised joints who would like to engage in experiences that their bodies don’t currently allow.
They say:
> Engineered to augment natural lower leg and ankle movement
Meanwhile, most people who can't walk/run as they would like have issues from their knees upward.
Worse, having heavier lower leg means more strain on the upper leg.
Yes, there's probably a narrow niche of people with lower leg only issues that can be helped by this device, but most people have issues upward ; and this device have the potential to create issues upward on people not yet concerned by them.
If it was a medical company I'd agree a bit more. But it's Nike. They'll sell that to any person who thinks walking is too hard even though it's not in his best medical interest.
There is nothing natural about the motions of running in modern running shoes, and yet people learn. Getting the behavior right will be difficult, I'm sure, but not impossible.
I like this. I like walking, and I already walk quite fast, but I'd like to see more while I walk. (Though, as I'm thinking about it right now, I might also just consciously practice walking faster.)
Wild! Looks like it pulls your heel up so reduces energy requirement of each up stroke? Seems like it would need to be super light to offset carrying more mass?
This is godawful, I hate it. If you aren't physically disabled or injured you have no business using this kind of thing. I do not want to live in the world where otherwise fully-capable human beings are not even using their own legs to walk anymore either because they can't be bothered to get off the couch for an hour a day or because they don't have the time to improve their health.
Absolutely disgusting nonsense. Get off my lawn, robot hippies
> This makes it easier for everyday athletes to walk or run more often, for longer amounts of time, while having more fun — adding movement to their lives, extending their walking commute, or helping them to enjoy the run for another mile or two.
The people I know who run all do it for the exercise, not because they like the running. Why would you want to extend it?
> The people I know who run all do it for the exercise, not because they like the running.
That sounds like torture. Why would you voluntarily practice a form of exercise that you actively dislike, when there are basically infinite options to get the same benefits in different ways?
Believe it or not, many people who stick with running do it because they enjoy it.
I became a runner by elimination: I needed to do something for "cardiac hygiene". Swimming has a setup cost (you need to go to a pool). Cycling takes too long, so running it became. I run 40-50km/week, and honestly I do not like it. Anyway, I do enjoy the mental health side effects too.
I don't really like and never liked running; I mean, I don't like it as I like skateboarding, which makes me all butterfly hyped just thinking about riding a board and doing even the dumbest simplest tricks.
But I do like the effects of running, which I don't seem to be able to emulate any other way. I can't say it's torture - it should never be nor feel like torture otherwise you're doing it wrong - but it was certainly a learned taste of sorts.
It's more like this human body has been shaped to do this by aeons of evolution, and over time it feels immensely rewarding after the fact when done properly for a given fitness level.
You don't have to like running, your body does already (but might have forgotten)
>Why would you voluntarily practice a form of exercise that you actively dislike, when there are basically infinite options to get the same benefits in different ways?
If there are other, more enjoyable, ways to get a similarly cardo-intensive workout that are equally convenient I'd love to hear them.
I like cycling. But in practice it is difficult to get my heart rate as high in a sustained way - at least, where I live. A similar level of workout takes a lot longer.
So yeah, hit me with some of these infinite possibilities please.
Are there any actual videos of this, you know, in use? All I see is a bunch of 3d renders of it. There isn't even a picture of a Nike executive holding a prototype.
"In 2027, mechanically-augmented people all over the world suffered from extreme psychotic delusions, lost control of themselves, and started attacking people. Millions died. Hundreds of thousands more were injured and maimed.
In the wake of this global catastrophe, society has become divided by hatred, prejudice, and fear, with many countries now enacting harsh laws. The most notable of these laws is the highly controversial “Human Restoration Act”, aimed at isolating “Augs” and keeping them away from “Naturals”."
When Nike was working on the Mags (self-lacing) there were lots of hobby projects to try and build the same thing, but none of them could come close to the finish and integration that Nike could manage with their resources and industrial processes.
"designed to help everyday athletes* go a little bit faster and farther"
When is the last time an athlete said I'm looking to go a little faster and farther with the aid of a powered device? Their target market is all wrong. This would be great if aimed towards low mobility users.
> the power comes from pistons that are filled with a fuel-air mixture, and fired by compression when the user puts his or her full body weight down into the boot
Bikes and cars are modes of transport. They're optimal for getting around at high speeds, but when you don't need them, you need to leave them somewhere, they're large and not very convenient. On the other hand, these are shoes. You put them on in the morning and can wear them anywhere outside, they're not separate things you need to handle. I can definitely see demand for this from people who walk all day long for their jobs (warehouse workers, military, etc) or hikers/runners who want to stretch their endurance over a larger distance.
I would like to have something like this if it helped me with e.g. shin splints, or similar, because I really love running, but I tend to overdo it and I don't have any other options than asphalt to run on. Not sure if this one would be good for shin splits though. I guess this could potentially just be a fun thing to run a bit faster, but that alone wouldn't be worth it for me. But if it allowed me to balance where the strain goes, then yeah.
I was going to comment the same thing, rather than push off harder, I'd hope it help brace for impact and relieve some of the weaker muscles.
Yes, I should perhaps be doing strength training, but I have limited hours to exercise and I'd prefer to spend them running rather than training so that eventually I could be running.
Another thing that happens is that your technique gets worse during longer runs, making you more prone to injuries. Maybe a device like this could either support you so you can run longer runs or compensate to make sure you don't hurt yourself.
So if this device helps with reducing running based injuries, I'm all for it
I have an electric cargo bike that I put in one of the lowest settings, if I cycle at the top speed it doesn't help much if at all. But accelerating from a dead stop is nice. This could be similar
Off topic, but for what it's worth I'm getting myself a rowing machine to try and alleviate my running cravings, especially as winter is coming. I'm not sure if it will be able to reproduce the feelings I get from running as I haven't done rowing enough, but running seems to be the only thing I've found that puts me into this flow state. Cycling is too limited, legs only, HR doesn't get high enough, so hopefully rowing is better due to it being full body. Rowing won't be outside and I won't be physically moving around so that may be the downside. But the metrics to achieve should be much more consistent and comparable compared to if there's many weather changes otherwise, so looking forward to seeing progress there.
It’s somewhat funny that you mention shin splints and technique breakdown, both of which can be helped through regular gym going but also want a shortcut rather than the obvious solution.
Shin splints really do suck though, I had some that put me off running for about 12 months.
Maybe they can be helped, and I've read suggestions like these as well, but I used to do a lot of strength training, including not skipping leg days, and still got shin splints. So strength training might decrease odds for some people, but I don't feel like it would be deciding factor for me.
Might be good for the last mile commuting problem, where people need a way to get from their home to a bus stop that is a mile or two away. A bicycle is not a good solution because then you have to take it on to the bus and to your destination.
I wish that existed too. Not just an event to see how far the human body can be pushed naturally, but also another one to see how far it can be pushed, period. There would still need to be regulation to ensure that people didn't actively harm themselves (like extreme doping or something), but other augmentations like exoskeletons and such would be allowed.
I see this more applicable to the military and law enforcement, but yes also for the elderly and disabled. Yeah, the opening line with “athletes” doesn’t make sense.
There are already powered leg augmentations on the market for $3-5k, but these are much smaller.
The Moonwalkers from Shift Robotics from 2022 come to mind, but are noticeably different. Or the Dephy Exoboot: https://www.dephy.com which is also 'the first'
> and Nike will rip you off with the price for "western engineering".
It's the brand more than anything. Nike's brand commands a premium.
I've quite literally never seen a product like this on the market, so as far as I'm concerned if Nike is the first to Western market with the product, and they do a good job introducing it, it's their innovation.
It's like with Nintendo and Apple. They're quite frequently not the first to develop a technology, but they take things and popularize them. Digital cameras, motion control, touch screens, smartphones, tablet gaming devices, ...
I could see this doing the same for older runners if the tech gets good enough.
“Athlete” != “professional athlete” the word encompasses a wide range of people and abilities.
I personally love hiking. I love going into nature, seeing new places, and being away from people. But there are times where I go for a slightly easier course instead of the one I actually want to do, because that few extra hours would absolutely wreck my body, especially since I'm often hiking in different places for several days. A little boost would be nice.
And with e-bikes, they're great for commuters and people just riding around their neighborhood. Lots of people ride them in my town for doing shopping trips. More affordable than a car, better for the environment, better for your health, and people who otherwise would take a car because they can't deal with pedaling uphill or long distances have a great alternative. I imagine powered shoes will be the same. People who feel like they're too old/out of shape to walk long distances often opt for cars, but if powered shoes give them the confidence to walk, it's far better to take an electronically assisted walk than to sit in a vehicle.
> * If you have a body, you are an athlete.
Electric pedal assist bikes are best suited for commuting and running errands, i.e. using the bike as a transportation tool, not a recreation tool.
As other commenters posted, it gets even more people out on the paths who wouldn’t normally be able to keep up or might feel self-conscious, and I think that’s a really positive thing.
Less gatekeeping, more celebration: imagine being Pogi and being able to crank 300 watts for hours on end. It would make touring the countryside a joy!
Perhaps more interesting, a lot of people I know do train but don't push themselves to the limit. There is always something left in the tank. If their goal is to train to improve it's very [lets say] expensive. They invest a lot for small returns.
Now what if you could keep going if you would otherwise feel the need to quit?
I cycle for a good while then have to guess if ill still be able make it back home. Usually I bet on the safe side. When I bet to low I could add a few laps around the block but this requires an odd kind of discipline that I seem to lack.
Rather than grow it turns into a maintenance routine. If I wanted to do maintenance I would do much less and less frequent.
I don't know if we are talking about the same thing. I am taking the argument from OP about "people recovering from surgery might need electric assist to keep up with the A-group", and I'm questioning this need.
If someone wants to have some assistance, then by all means go ahead and use it. I'm just not seeing why someone would need to have this sort of assistance, unless they are just doing some poor post-hoc rationalization for their wants.
I've got a 12 mile bike commute with a big ass hill at the end. If I do 0 miles a day/week/ever without an electric bike to get me up that hill, or I do 8 miles 2x a week with the electric, am I not more athletic? Are firemen who use a hose that is powered by a pump less athletic than those who carry water in buckets?
If I'm normally sitting stationary and I do anything movement at all am I not, in fact, pushing the limits of my body?
My mom was 80, and had a stroke. She couldn't lift her toes on the right side, making it hard to walk without tripping. These shoes are for "everyday athletes". Does this make her completely unathletic, or do they, in fact, allow her to become more athletic than she could be otherwise?
And a lot of being aerodynamic on a bike is athleticism: you need to be flexible enough and appropriately trained to be in the right posture. The bike frames, skinsuits, etc, are all in the "marginal gains" territory.
I still think OP's take is wrong though.
Are you saying they are not athletic because they didn’t do all their training on a push bike?
I'm sure you've already seen https://eu.hypershell.tech
I'm hopeful these get cheaper, smaller and lighter, and more powerful. Would be great to have these accessible to a lot of people.
https://newatlas.com/unpowered-ankle-exoskeleton-walking-eff...
A motorcycle accident interrupted my fitness program and it took quite a lot of work to get back to where I am. During that period there were many times when I was (minorly) injured repeatedly since all my muscles were just not strong enough to do things and I wasn't disciplined about them.
I picked up some persistent tendinitis that is just healing with some physiotherapy. Things like this aren't terribly limiting in life but the primary problem is that a lot of the stuff you have to do is rest the appropriate body part! And to rest it, you need to not do things. I don't want to not do things. I want to do things while resting the appropriate part of my body.
And I bet as I get older, all this stuff will catch up. So anything that will extend mobility to my elderly years (still far away) is great. If I do the right things, my body will function well into my 80s and if the tech is there hopefully I'll walk around with my grandkids. All in all, I'm hoping that material science in batteries, motors, and frames and product design all do a big leap in this in the next 40 years. The market is likely there with our aging population.
0: Here's an example of me using them after I got used to them https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qc5PKbJ3tq4
The use cases I can see for others are “anyone who might find this useful or fun”. To me, that means
1) people with medically compromised joints who would like to engage in experiences that their bodies don’t currently allow.
2) people who want to challenge themselves by making these joint additions add more resistance.
3) people who want more strength and/or power for any reason. “Fun” is a valid use case.
These joint enhancements exist for hips, knees, and with this, now ankles. The logical end for this is a powered exoskeleton (and, after that, power armor).
And medically compromised muscles, nervous systems, etc. I know someone in that situation who loves scooters. They say it's like flying - they finally can move at will, instead of the lifelong difficulty and pain of walking.
Not sure I would buy this product, but I see more than 0 use for it.
Have you considered running faster?
But seriously though, I’ve gotten pretty decent at running (3h15min marathon PR) and the difference between hiking a trail and running the same trail is kinda bonkers. These days I can run a trail in 2 hours that took me 6 hours to hike 10 years ago. Hits totally different. The whole dynamic changes.
Hiking feels immensely boring now
PS: If you run fast enough you don’t even notice the scenery.
Instead of running 10km in an hour, I could bike from Silicon Valley to the ocean and back in 3-4 hours, and have views over city, hills, oceans, suburbia, etc.
They say:
> Engineered to augment natural lower leg and ankle movement
Meanwhile, most people who can't walk/run as they would like have issues from their knees upward.
Worse, having heavier lower leg means more strain on the upper leg.
Yes, there's probably a narrow niche of people with lower leg only issues that can be helped by this device, but most people have issues upward ; and this device have the potential to create issues upward on people not yet concerned by them.
Absolutely disgusting nonsense. Get off my lawn, robot hippies
Pair with some power gloves to catch your fall and maybe I can learn to skateboard as my mid life crisis activity down the road.
The people I know who run all do it for the exercise, not because they like the running. Why would you want to extend it?
That sounds like torture. Why would you voluntarily practice a form of exercise that you actively dislike, when there are basically infinite options to get the same benefits in different ways?
Believe it or not, many people who stick with running do it because they enjoy it.
But I do like the effects of running, which I don't seem to be able to emulate any other way. I can't say it's torture - it should never be nor feel like torture otherwise you're doing it wrong - but it was certainly a learned taste of sorts.
It's more like this human body has been shaped to do this by aeons of evolution, and over time it feels immensely rewarding after the fact when done properly for a given fitness level.
You don't have to like running, your body does already (but might have forgotten)
If there are other, more enjoyable, ways to get a similarly cardo-intensive workout that are equally convenient I'd love to hear them.
I like cycling. But in practice it is difficult to get my heart rate as high in a sustained way - at least, where I live. A similar level of workout takes a lot longer.
So yeah, hit me with some of these infinite possibilities please.
The people I know who stuck to running long term like it.
Also. Would this change strain put on e.g knee joints, ankles, hips or spine?
> rechargeable cuff battery that seamlessly integrate with a carbon fiber–plated running shoe
Mrwhosetheboss did a video on the new Nike stuff including these
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-MU5MgRV6U
These Amplify are pretty complicated:
https://youtu.be/Nz2Y0e7SgFY?t=404
isn't that a time-honoured tradition at tour de france?
> the power comes from pistons that are filled with a fuel-air mixture, and fired by compression when the user puts his or her full body weight down into the boot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_boots
https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/these-gas-powered-bo...
Nike's plans to put the swoosh back into its sales
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/oct/23/just-redo-it-i...
Yes, I should perhaps be doing strength training, but I have limited hours to exercise and I'd prefer to spend them running rather than training so that eventually I could be running.
Another thing that happens is that your technique gets worse during longer runs, making you more prone to injuries. Maybe a device like this could either support you so you can run longer runs or compensate to make sure you don't hurt yourself.
So if this device helps with reducing running based injuries, I'm all for it
I have an electric cargo bike that I put in one of the lowest settings, if I cycle at the top speed it doesn't help much if at all. But accelerating from a dead stop is nice. This could be similar
That thing will make you sweat.
Shin splints really do suck though, I had some that put me off running for about 12 months.
There are already powered leg augmentations on the market for $3-5k, but these are much smaller.
So this is straight up false?
Link?
> and Nike will rip you off with the price for "western engineering".
It's the brand more than anything. Nike's brand commands a premium.
I've quite literally never seen a product like this on the market, so as far as I'm concerned if Nike is the first to Western market with the product, and they do a good job introducing it, it's their innovation.
It's like with Nintendo and Apple. They're quite frequently not the first to develop a technology, but they take things and popularize them. Digital cameras, motion control, touch screens, smartphones, tablet gaming devices, ...