{"id":10263,"date":"2024-05-20T08:59:51","date_gmt":"2024-05-20T08:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/miffa.cloud\/?p=10263"},"modified":"2026-06-14T09:03:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T09:03:27","slug":"racing-flats-are-becoming-rare-even-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mrgutang.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/20\/racing-flats-are-becoming-rare-even-in-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"Racing flats are becoming rare, even in Japan."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In Japan, where traditional racing flats had a market, popular brands are disappearing. Not long ago, you could find many racing flats on Japanese sports brand websites that weren’t available elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Japanese consumers used to spend a lot on their specialist racing flats and running gear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, most marathon runners, both elite and amateur, prefer super shoes with thick midsoles and carbon plates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mary Keitany won the 2018 NYC marathon in Adidas Takumi Sen 3. She was the last top athlete to win using traditional racing flats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest Takumi Sen 10 <\/strong>and Adios 8<\/strong> in the Adizero line are only recommended for 5-10k runs. It’s surprising because their stack height is more than double that of traditional racing flats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A tribute to some of the latest racing shoes you can still buy (if visiting the country)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Asics Sortiemagic RP 6 still doing good? Link<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Asics racing flat vs Takumi Sen 9. Both are technically racing flats.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Joma R5000 – The Spanish brand famous for his soccer apparel also made running flats until 2024.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n

The Joma R-5000 is designed especially for fast, experienced runners with good running technique. When you look at it, you can see that it is a shoe with minimal cushioning and a low profile, which means that the runner’s technique is going to be a determining factor in their performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a 6-millimeter drop and a weight of around 167 grams<\/strong>, this “featherweight”shoe is designed for runners looking for a lightweight, high-performance shoe with a refined running technique to make the most of all its features.<\/p>\nAmaia Cabezudo – Runnea<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Yuki Kawauchi, one of the last who took them to victory.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Yuki Kawauchi, the Marathon Star of the People, a man known as the “citizen runner” given that he used to work full-time for the government of Saitama Prefecture and trained in his time off with his own expenses without any sponsorship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kawauchi won the 2018 Boston Marathon wearing a custom made SortieMagic RP2. In 2020, he left his job in local government and became a full-time professional runner (see Wikipedia).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was probably one of the last pure breed Japanese marathoners \/ long distance runners who changed from racing flats to plated shoes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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By Frankie Fouganthin – <\/a>Own<\/a> work<\/a>, CC BY-SA 4.0
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Japan, where traditional racing flats had a market, popular brands are disappearing. Not long ago, you could find many racing flats on Japanese sports brand websites that weren’t available…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10593,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,15,17],"tags":[94,191],"class_list":["post-10263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-design","category-fashion","category-running","tag-japan","tag-running"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrgutang.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrgutang.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrgutang.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrgutang.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrgutang.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mrgutang.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10619,"href":"https:\/\/mrgutang.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10263\/revisions\/10619"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrgutang.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrgutang.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrgutang.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrgutang.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}