Many of this year’s highest-profile running shoes have featured some version of carbon plates, as our September-October issue of WSA finds. This is the technology that allows midsole foam to compress and expand more quickly, propelling runners toward record-breaking speeds.

From the shoes that helped Kenyan athlete Eliud Kipchoge break the two-hour barrier for a marathon last October, to New Balance’s latest racer, we look at 2020’s explosion in carbon-plate running shoes from major brands.

Carb Loading, which can be read here, also explores how Aerolite Carbon is working to make carbon technology more accessible to footwear designers that don't have the resources to develop their own.

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