Brands have used carbon fiber as a material in footwear for decades, but what we now think of as “carbon plate running shoes” came to fruition in 2017 when Nike debuted the Zoom Vaporfly 4% ...

The Vaporfly, with its high foam stacks and a carbon-fiber plate running through the midsole, promised runners a 4% increase in performance over regular running shoes. With such a bold claim ...

As an avid runner who loves racing, I’ve been testing the best carbon plate running shoes ever since the original Nike Vaporfly 4% launched. I’ve tried almost every super-shoe released since ...

thin carbon fiber plate in their midsole." He says the plate can help with energy return and make your strides more efficient. Put another way, Engineering.com says that a carbon plate "acts as a ...