unpopular opinion wrote:
I am sure this is an unpopular opinion but until a US mens runner not sponsored by Hoka that actually has what it takes to win UTMB runs it there wont be a man from the US that will win. Those crap foam bricks may work ok for shorter races and more runnable stuff where the paces are faster but for longer stuff they just sap your energy. Clunky shoes sapping your energy and at slower paces all that stack is not very useful. While old and fat Hoka wearers may disagree you do not need all that stack for slow paces, it just gets in the way.
Yes, they sponsor an army of runners so of course some are running fast times in those shoes. But even just look at Walmsley, when he first broke onto the scene taking down CR after CR he was doing it in Adidas shoes. Traditional drop and stack. I am not saying that the shoes make ALL of the difference but just look at those with roughly equal chances of winning and what shoes are on their feet. Take 2 equally fit guys and the one with the more efficient shoes is likely going to win. You cannot argue that a giant piece of unresponsive foam is going to be more efficient than a traditional drop, lower stack shoe with more energy return and response.
And since switching to Hoka, Walmsley has lowered his previous CRs. So, at the very least, we can say those clunky shoes haven't sapped that much of his energy, wouldn't you agree?
There's no data on efficiency re: trail running shoes. Also, what's efficiency? Running economy? Energy return? One thing you can say about Hokas and other maximally stacked shoes is that they reduce the amount of pounding, which sure provides some advantage on longer races.
Maybe it would interest you to know that Francois won the race wearing maximally stacked Salomon prototypes - and not only maximally stacked, but also plated!
Ludovic Pommeret won UTMB wearing Hokas, and the 2nd finished that year also wore Hokas. Same for Caroline Chaverot. A number of runners have done well wearing Hokas and other maximal shoes in the UTMB races and similar European mountain ultras.
Bottom line: IT'S NOT THE SHOES.
PS: I'm not into Hokas, my current favorite running shoes are the Adidas Boston 6, New Balance 890v6, Brooks Launch 6 and Saucony Freedom ISO (v1).