Shoes of the winning marathoners tells you what brand is sponsoring the runners. The sponsorship has a tremendous impact on who wins major races. The shoes don't have that much of an impact.
Go to any race. The field is STACKED with people running vaporflys. I see it at our running club. People are suddenly paying their own money to buy the same Nike shoe, when in the past people used kind of whatever they preferred.
Tune in to the olympic marathon trials February 29. I bet the vast majority of the field will be wearing the exact same shoe.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-athletics-shoe-factbox/fa...