Material Matters: What's Up With Energy Return Foam?

These days energy return seems to be at the heart of every new design, but not so long ago the term was seldom heard. The goal is to produce a shoe that converts as much as possible of a runner’s momentum into energy that pushes forward, to make the most out of what they’ve got. It’s become a high-tech sole foam face-off, which has seen athletic footwear manufacturers recruit some of the world’s chemical engineering elite. The big question is, does energy return live up to all the hype?