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Nike is much better at marketing than Adidas, that's pretty much it. Also I think most people don't actually care about the nitpicky rules and so the barrier was already broken, does breaking it a second time "but actually" really say anything new? However, marketing can only get you so far and Nike should be worried overall about losing such a large part of the running market, there's a reason the stock price is in the dumpster. Arguably, however, this isn't really a technology problem so much as an execution problem; Nike's loss in market share isn't really because rivals invented something Nike didn't, but rather Nike's shoes haven't had the right mix of quality control, durability, and comfort that hobby-runners and semi-pros want.
These technical sneaker competitions are cool but it strikes me as car brands building cars to win at Formula 1.
Am I a serious enough runner that I buy multiple pieces of gear? Yes. Am I fast? No. Will $500 sneakers make me fast? Also no. Am I most of the people buying shoes? Not even. Most are even more casual.
I suppose Nike started this fight. And unlike F1 I can buy the sneakers that the champions roll in and say "why yes these do feel incredibly light", so that's something.
I'd really kill for a pair of running sneakers that prevented blisters though.
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Breaking it in an actual race gets you recognition from e.g. the Guiness Book of Records, which is what the man in the street takes as official. You can argue about how much the difference between an exhibition race run under competition rules (like the "race" Roger Bannister ran his four-minute mile in) and an event with a team of 41 pacers running in a formation designed to protect the record breaker from air resistance, but from the point of view of achieving the thing we set out to achieve and
Also, the 2026 London Marathon was a real race with big money on the line. It wasn't the pacer in from of him that pulled Sawe over the line, it was the risk of being overtaken by Kejelcha that pushed him.
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