Lost in all the hype of Sebastian Sawe breaking the world record and the 2 hour mark in the Marathon with his incredible 1:59:30 performance was the little detail that his shoes were 3mm drop, with a stack height of 39mm in the heel and 36mm in the forefoot. This is a detail that adidas seems to be avoiding publishing widely or talking about, and that the running world at large seems to have missed in general.

However, it’s not like the shoes only being 3mm drop came out of nowhere—Eliud Kipchoge had great performances—including his own ‘Breaking 2’ event where he ran 1:59:40—in 4mm drop Nike Air Zoom Alphafly NEXT% shoes.

Kipchoge has now been featured promoting Nike’s Apex, their newest top of the line, “most advanced racing system yet” shoe. The “Apex features zero-drop geometry” and is set to release in January 2027.

Why are the fastest running shoes in the world trending toward Zero Drop? What are the speed benefits of Zero Drop shoes…what specifically makes them faster?

• More loading/power transfer. Zero Drop allows deeper loading of the posterior chain and foot muscles that allows for a more powerful push-off. ^{see note 1} Think of this like a pogo stick – if it can’t push down as far, it can’t bounce back as powerfully. Your foot, Achilles, and calf muscles are no different. The fastest sprint and jumping shoes in the world have always been negative drop (raised forefoot) or zero drop. In fact, running shoes did not have elevated heels at all prior to cushioning being introduced in the 1960’s by Onitsuka / Blue Ribbon Sports / Nike. Of course, for long distances—for most people—those muscles will have to be trained before they can consistently be faster and more efficient. With that said, it was VERY common when I was at Altra for people to tell us they got their first Altra’s and then ran a big personal record in their 5k, 10k, half marathon, or marathon the next day.
• Lighter weight or more propulsive cushioning. Zero Drop shoes are lighter weight or get more propulsive forefoot cushioning for their weight. Obviously not having a big chunky heel on a shoe—and all the plastic heel counter material that should be there to stabilize the biomechanical problems/movements caused by the elevated heel—results in the shoe being lighter weight. On the flip side—and this is realistically a big motivation for the current shift—lowering the drop allows for a maximum amount of cushioning in the forefoot without adding as much weight to the shoe. A shoe without an elevated heel is lighter. A shoe without heavy heel counter materials to stabilize the motion that happens more when you have an elevated heel is also lighter.
• More biomechanically efficient / better running technique. Zero Drop improves biomechanical efficiency. By eliminating the elevated heel wedge, the runner’s center of mass remains more balanced over the midfoot, reducing the tendency to overstride or brake with each step. Our early research at my running store (pre-Altra) showed that the average person was landing less dorsiflexed and 2-3″ more underneath their knee in a zero drop model than they were in the most popular running shoe models on the market. It’s not hard to understand that when a shoe is heavier in the back half of the shoe that it will cause the heel to drop and the toes to be more up at landing (making the foot dorsiflex). It’s also not hard to understand that when the back half of the shoe is thicker than the front, that the back will catch the ground earlier than it would if the shoe were level from heel to forefoot.
• It’s the body’s natural, default position. Zero Drop is the way humans were born and get out of bed every morning. It’s the most natural platform possible in a shoe and is the default position your foot and leg were designed to operate in. It’s the most naturally efficient. And yes, I’ll give you that people who have run in elevated heels for decades will have to adjust back to their body’s natural default position for a while before it becomes consistently more efficient for them. This is part of the reason I developed P.R. Gear Bridge Soles.
• Less energy is wasted stabilizing, because Zero Drop is a more stable platform (think about wobbling your ankle back and forth flat on the ground vs elevated in the air at all, or simply how stable you are barefoot vs how obviously unstable you are in a pair of high heeled shoes). More energy gets to be used for forward drive and propulsion in a Zero Drop shoe.
• Your feet and lower legs become stronger. Consistent use of zero-drop shoes engages intrinsic foot and calf muscles through a fuller range of motion, building greater functional strength and power for propulsion. Secondarily speaking, studies equate foot strengthening with statistically being BY FAR the best way to reduce running injuries with a 2.42x reduced injury risk ^{(Taddei, et al 2022).} When you’re injured less, you can train more.
• Improved Cadence / Optimized Ground Contact Time. Zero Drop shoes typically improve cadence and optimize ground contact time. Obviously with a flatter platform and without the chunky elevated heel on the shoe, this is going to encourage a more natural, higher-frequency turnover with a cleaner landing, minimizing wasted energy and optimizing ground contact duration.
• Less injury = more training = faster times. Because higher drop and more cushioned shoes have repeatedly been shown for 40 years to put more strain on joints, theoretically, rotating in Zero Drop shoes should help reduce long term wear and tear on joints, resulting in healthier, less injured runners ^{see note 3}. While traditional high drop shoes shift load off the calf and Achilles at the expense of shin/knee/joint stress, modern cushioned zero-drop shoes aim to balance that equation by offering cushioned protection while keeping the body’s natural alignment and biomechanics intact. It should also be pointed out that the muscles of the foot and lower leg are adaptable tissues which can respond positively and get stronger with increased load over time. The same can not be said for joints, which are not adaptable and get worn down with increased load over time. So you choose…more load on the adaptable tissues or on the non-adaptable joints???
  Not being injured leads to more training, which leads to more speed. Personally, I had an injury riddled college running career like most elite collegiate runners. However, since getting my first pair of Altra prototypes 18 years ago in 2008, I haven’t had a single serious running injury that has kept me away from training (including a year I ran a 2:30 marathon on 25 miles per week of training!). Note: I have been kept out of training many times from getting sick, taking hard falls on the trail, etc.!
• Counter intuitive note: All shoes with a relatively uniform platform compress more in the forefoot and develop some drop (albeit minimal) over time, because peak impact actually occurs in stance phase (mid-stance to push off). ^{See note 2}.
• …and we haven’t even begun to touch on the speed benefits of a foot-shaped toe box and getting the big toe straight! I firmly believe we will see sprint and jump shoes in the future intentionally hold the big toe in a straight position because the power transfer and blood flow are so much better (this has already confirmed in research ^{(Ridge, et al, 2019)}.

I hope you enjoyed this read and look forward to the comments. If you like this post, please share it!

Notes for more detail:

Note 1: A zero-drop platform stretches the Achilles tendon and calf muscles to their natural, full physiological length upon foot-strike, maximizing the stretch-shortening cycle to store and release elastic recoil energy more efficiently during toe-off.

Note 2: When I was Altra, we tested returned shoes for years and years and never once saw a pair that came back negative drop, even among shoes that were clearly worn by heel strikers. Most pairs developed between 0.5mm and 1mm of drop after being worn for 300-1000 miles. There’s a reason for this:
1. The Cumulative Load of the Active Peak
While a heel striker hits the rearfoot first with a sharp impact transient, the actual duration and magnitude of total mechanical work happen during mid-to-late stance as the body rolls forward. Every runner—whether heel, midfoot, or forefoot striker—spends the latter half of stance driving their entire body weight (magnified by running forces) directly down through the forefoot to propel themselves forward. Over hundreds of miles, that sustained, high-pressure dwell time in the forefoot compresses the uniform foam much more than the quick, localized impact at the heel.
2. Elimination of Heel-Biased Softness
In traditional shoes, manufacturers intentionally put softer, thicker foam in the heel to mask the impact. Because a zero-drop shoe uses the same thickness and density throughout, the heel lacks that extra “cushion buffer” to absorb the initial hit, meaning the foam takes a uniform beating, but the forefoot ultimately bears the brunt of the prolonged propulsive loading phase.
3. The Math of Compression Set
Foam doesn’t just crush instantly; it suffers from compression set (gradual loss of rebound and permanent height reduction) based on cumulative mechanical stress over time. Since the forefoot experiences the highest combined forces during the push-off phase for every single step taken, it packs down faster when starting from an even baseline.

_{Note 3:} Some will say there will be more injuries due to increased Foot / Achilles / Calf strain. And that will be true for a select few. Scientifically and statistically speaking, that will be the most likely with very high mileage runners, as it is already, and studies have shown that Achilles injuries are quite rare in all but that group. With that said, the balance will almost certainly result in far fewer running injuries in general, as Achilles and soleus injuries make up only a very small percentage of running injuries—and the areas that make up the most injuries are likely to go down.