Source: PUMA
Norwegian athlete Karsten Warholm set a new 400m men’s hurdles World Record with Track & Field spikes that Mercedes collaborated on.
Warholm has set the new World Record of 45.94s at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in a race that some are calling the greatest in Olympic history.
Warholm used the PUMA Evospeed Tokyo Future Faster+ spikes that feature carbon fibre threads in the upper and a carbon plate in the sole, and weigh just 135 grams.
The shoes were designed by PUMA with input from Warholm, his coach Leif Olav Alnes, and the Mercedes Formula 1 Team.
“This collaboration with PUMA has been a natural alignment – track spikes need to run fast, and racing cars need to drive fast,” said Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff.
“Whether you’re designing a great racing car or the perfect track spike, it comes down to engineering and putting as much performance as possible into the product.
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“We have drawn on our experience and expertise in carbon fibre with the design, and along the way we learned that making an innovative track spike involves the same kind of complexity as a Formula 1 car.
“And it has been an exciting challenge to tackle together,” concluded the Austrian.
Warholm also commented on the joint project.
“What I feel is very unique about this project is that it combines the best of all the worlds,” the Norwegian said.
“It combines what PUMA knows about how to make a shoe that’s comfortable and fits your foot. It combines what Mercedes knows about carbon fibre through their Formula 1 work, and it combines what my coach and I know about running and the biomechanics for running.
“This is very unique and it has given us the perfect product for us to work on the track – a spike that is really aggressive, with a really good forward propulsion,” concluded Warholm.
