Stepping into the Future: Justin Matties and Revealing the Effects of Super Shoes

At Cal State East Bay, there are many opportunities that can cater to your interests. If you are a sneakerhead or a student athlete, the Kinesiology department has a perfect example of what options are available to you, and no one understands that better than graduate student Justin Matties. Though his undergraduate studies were interrupted by the COVID pandemic, forcing him to finish his bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology online, that did not stop his biomechanics quest, the first of its kind within CSUEB’s Kin Department. 

In the first year of his master’s program, as well as undergoing his fourth year as a student-athlete in the track and cross country program, Matties has been very busy. While a student assistant for the Center for Student Research (CSR), he is also a graduate Teaching Associate for the Department of Statistics. With the help of biomechanics professor Michael Rowley, Matties decided to pursue his interest in running footwear. As well as receiving funding from the CSR, Rowley and Matties reached out to the Nike Sports Research Lab in March 2022 and in May 2022, were awarded a footwear grant as a part of the 2023 Nike Award for Athletic Footwear Research - Celebrating Inclusivity in Footwear Science. He was also the recipient of the NCAA California Collegiate Athletic Association Elite 13 Award. 

What Matties hopes to accomplish with his research, using 15 pairs of Nike Vaporflys and 15 pairs of Nike Victory racing flats, is to understand the long-term effects of training in carbon fiber plated “super shoes'’ on race performance and training adaptations. These super shoes, the Nike Vaporflys, are one of the latest innovations in shoe technology. The Vaporfly 4% was the world's first “super shoe” and claimed to improve runners' running efficiency by about 4%.

Since their release in 2017, the Vaporflys have been on the feet of some of the world’s best runners. The world record for the fastest marathon, held by Eliud Kipchoge, was accomplished while wearing Nike Alphaflys, a newer iteration of the Vaporfly. With the initial footwear provided, Matties was able to conduct an eight-person pilot study, and it was this initial research that he has been able to share at various CSU showcases. 

Matties has presented his findings at the:

• CSU East Bay Grad Slam, Third place 
• CSU East Bay Student Research Showcase, hosted by the CSR 
• CSU Systemwide Student Research Competition at San Diego State University, First place

This summer he will be presenting his findings at multiple conferences, with his work taking him all over the world. From the U.S. to Canada and Japan, Matties’ work will be seen by experts in the fields of statistics, medicine and biomechanics. His work, further highlighted in articles such as this one from Outside Online, is the first ever longitudinal super shoe study and could lead to a new understanding within the running shoe world.

Looking ahead, the future of Matties’ research is still ongoing. This fall, they will begin organizing the next study, with a goal sample size of 50 runners in an eight-week training intervention study. The CSR has provided 42 pairs of Nike shoes for this study, and he is still working on obtaining more Vaporflys to use in his research.

On the impact of 3D technology, Matties said, “I see students get so excited about research, both mine and their own research interests, once they see it actually being done, particularly once they get to see the 3D motion capture equipment and metabolic carts in action.”

Looking to the future, Matties has more plans for his career in footwear saying, “I am aiming to begin a Ph.D. program immediately after I graduate with my master’s in Kinesiology from East Bay and hope to eventually have a career as a running footwear innovator/biomechanist in the Nike Sports Research Lab.” With accomplished research so early on in his work, and a pair of Nikes in hand, Justin Matties is poised to reach even greater heights in his quest to understand the effects of super shoes like the Nike Vaporflys. Matties is an example of the relationship your academic future and personal interests can have when attending Cal State East Bay.