Someone Finally Made a Super Shoe That Actually Looks Good

With its first-ever super shoe, Tracksmith rethinks what race-day footwear ought to look like.

By Jack Seemer

Published March 20, 2025

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Updated March 20, 2025

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There’s simply no way around it: we run in a super-shoe world.

Before the Vaporfly, and the countless shoes that followed, only one person in history had ever completed a marathon in less than two hour and three minutes on a record-eligible course.

Less than a decade later, nearly a dozen more have joined the fray, with both Eliud Kipchoge and the late Kelvin Kiptum accomplishing the feat more than once.

But speed isn’t the only thing affected. Shoes themselves look different now.

nike running shoes — Nike super shoes, such as the Vaporfly (top) and Alphafly (bottom), ushered in a new era of not only performance but shoe design.

Midsoles are thicker, soles arrive half-carved out (usually exposing a carbon-fiber plate) and lightweight uppers are proudly showcased in every shade of neon imaginable. The message from most brands is clear: super shoes aren’t your typical trainers.

Leave it to Tracksmith to say the exact opposite.

No show

The brand’s first-ever super shoe, the Eliot Racer, looks strikingly similar to its daily trainer, the Eliot Runner, released in 2022.

However, beneath its stylish, nondescript getup is a shoe that Tracksmith claims to be every bit as super as the best of them. It might be right.

The Eliot Racer’s halo feature, and the thing enabling its minimalist look, is a drop-in midsole that hides part of its propulsive foam inside the shoe, rather than on the bottom.

It’s a similar premise that premiered last year with On’s Cloudboom Strike series, only here it’s used to minimize the amount of foam needed outside the upper rather than add to it.

on cloudboom strike lightspray shoe — The spray-on upper stole the show with On’s Cloudboom Strike series (pictured). However, it, too, featured a drop-in midsole.

Race-day speed, everyday style

As far as foams go, the drop-in midsole is made from supercritical TPU, which has quietly become many manufacturers’ go-to material for high-end super shoes.

The bottom is tried-and-true Pebax, the base material for Nike ZoomX, which currently holds the marathon world record time of two hours and 39 seconds.

Together, the two materials measure up to 38mm at their thickest point, with 7.5mm heel-to-toe drop.

The shoe also has a full-length carbon-fiber plate (table stakes for a modern race-day shoe), as well a lightweight mesh upper and flared front for a rocker shape that keeps runners on their toes.

That all said, you would never know that the Eliot Racer packed so much tech into such an understated package. Which, of course, is exactly the point: No gimmicks, no nonsense, no neon colors. Just a normal-looking shoe for running as fast as your legs are willing on the day.