before we get into the meat of this
episode here's a quick mini theory you
know how in February paramount announced
a merchandising deal for the official
sonic shoes with Puma how the movie
makes you feel all emotional when sonic
replaces his old worn-out shoes with his
iconic red pair brought to him by Puma
not so subtly pushing you to buy a pair
of new shoes for yourself man wouldn't
it be great if advertisers and movies
head to I don't know disclose that sort
of product placement and content
targeting younger viewers just like
online content creators have to huh
anyway inequality and governmental
regulations aside sure this scene might
seem like a shameless bit of product
placement but the reality is that Sonic
was actually long overdue for a new pair
of Pumped Up Kicks most running shoe
manufacturers recommend replacing them
every 300 to 500 miles or 483 to 805
kilometers and according to competitive
runners and coaches it's rare to get
more than 1,200 miles 1930 kilometers
out of a solid pair of shoes before they
start to fall apart now I bring that up
because in our last episode we
calculated that the blue blur ran at
1100 miles and that sprint to the
Pacific Ocean and back that plus the
extra miles that he puts on when
fighting Robotnik means that he is well
overdue for a replacement pair by the
time that they reach San Francisco
that's assuming he was starting the
roadtrip with a fresh pair of shoes to
begin with so hey maybe it wasn't just a
shameless plug for shoes maybe it was
just the movie trying to be factually
accurate and a shameless plug for shoes
hello Internet welcome to film theory
the show that ironically enough has done
more sonic videos in the last year than
our sister channel game theory
seriously between doing sonic videos
over here on film theory and Marvel
strikeforce videos over on game theory
feels like the lines separating these
channels are just getting blurrier by
the day so to say that the sonic movie
was better than expected was an
understatement shirk it probably won't
be winning any awards heck who knows at
this point maybe it will considering the
number of movies with delays or canceled
release dates at this point so heck it
could win some awards just by default
Oscar Best Picture winner for 2020 Sonic
the Hedgehog anyway wasn't coming out
for an early digital
released this week I wanted to talk
about it one last time because maybe it
was just me but didn't you think it was
weird the way that sonic shoes had holes
in them not them having holes obviously
that's perfectly normal know what struck
me as odd was where the holes were in
the shoes what about you but every time
I've ever worn through a pair of shoes
it's always been in the heel and yet a
huge plot point in the sonic movie is
that he has holes in the toes of his
shoes I mean that's the thing that
allows doctor Robotnik to scan Sonic's
footprint and discover that he's dealing
with some alien creature
so is sonic running wrong I mean far be
it for me to lecture the blue blur on
how he ought to be running he's out
there running over a thousand times the
speed of sound meanwhile I'm here
huffing and puffing after more than a
light jog he clearly doesn't need to
take any running tips for me but
seriously is sonic going about this
whole running thing all wrong what is
going on here and what insights does
this information give us about Sonic's
overall running technique could the
fastest thing alive actually be faster
if he chose to run in a more efficient
way for any other character we could
probably start by looking at his running
animation and not have to resort to this
kind of observation to get a feel for
how they run but sonic moves so fast
that at 24 frames per second movie ain't
gonna be enough for us to capture his
full run cycle I mean pending on what
frame you're looking at here it looks
like Sonic's either heel striking or
forefoot striking let me explain what I
mean by that in the world of running
there are several schools of thought
about the proper way to run when you run
you can either forefoot strike landing
with the front of your foot hitting the
ground first
or you can heel strike landing with your
heel hitting ground first the fact that
sonic shoes are completely worn through
in the toe is highly indicative of the
forefoot striking or toe running
approach and you see that's interesting
because that's actually not the method
favored by elite competitive runners
runners who compete to win in marathons
mostly prefer the heel striking method
one of the main reasons for that is that
running shoes have a heel that is
specifically designed for that sort of
approach for instance take a look at the
Nike Vapor fly shoes you see immediately
that the heel part is much thicker and
when resting flat the toed hasn't even
touched the ground you'd be running with
a pretty awkward gay to be tried to land
toe first on these sorts of shoes can't
the clip again notice how the runners
heel actually extends out at first as if
it's about to hit the ground before the
runner pulls back
and strikes eel first simply put elite
runners he'll strike because that's what
the best running shoes are currently
designed for these kinds of running
shoes improve a runners speed by packing
the heel with foam that gives the heel a
bit of a bounce allowing the runner to
rebound off the ground better the exact
same idea behind the air jordans that
literally have an air pocket in the heel
much like an inflated basketball will
bounce better than a flat one a running
shoe heel made of the right materials
will give a runner better bounce than if
they were running with a flat shoe
lately the idea of having air pockets or
foam padding and the heels of shoes has
gone to extreme levels those Nike Vapor
fly shoes that I showed you are built
with a special Zoom X extra thick foam
cushioning which according to Nikes
calculations makes runners 4% more
efficient now what percent might not
seem like that big of a deal but if
you're an elite competitor trying to set
a world record that sort of extra
efficiency might be enough to shave
seconds or heck even minutes off of a
marathon record time and you know what
that's exactly what it's managed to do
in fact that 4% has caused the vapor fly
she was to dominate the competitive
running world in May of 2017 Olympic
runner Elliot Kip shogi ran a marathon
using the vapor fly shoes and set a
record of 2 hours 1 minute and 39
seconds beating the previous world
record by a whopping 1 minute and 18
seconds that might not sound like all
that much but when you're talking about
marathon running times that is a huge
difference from the previous record in
2019 though he broke the record again
this time running the marathon in under
2 hours his time 1:59 40 in real quick
can we actually take a moment to
recognize how impressive a real live
human being running a 26.2 2 mile
marathon in 2 hours is I mean that is
the equivalent of running a mile in 4
minutes and 34 seconds and then keeping
that pace up for an entire two hours
most of us can't even run a single mile
or heck even a single lap at that sort
of pace I mean I know there's that old
saying it's a marathon not a sprint but
it almost feels like these people are
just straight-up sprinting non-stop for
two hours so the sort of performance
that would make our buddy sonic proud
but again he did it wearing those vapor
fly shoes which has led the entire
sports world ask is
Jews it sounds like it's a joke or a
line from an old Nike commercial and
well is it the shoes it's gotta be the
shoes there's a line from an old Nike
commercial but it's also a very real
question that's happening in the sports
world right now which has caused the
vapor fly line and the world record
marathon time that Elliot kept choked a
set while wearing them to become the
center of controversy according to
Sports Science journalist Alex
Hutchinson on boxes recode podcast which
if you haven't listened to is actually
really fascinating the five fastest
men's marathons in history have all been
run in the last 13 months all by runners
wearing paper flies they don't act soon
it's gonna be too late because the world
records are gonna keep dropping and then
then they're gonna be in a situation
where if they try and restrict it it's
like oh well then all the times in the
last five years or whatever have been
run on quote-unquote illegal shoes maybe
Nikes fears of this sort of controversy
are exactly the reason that when they
first started testing the vapor fly
prototype out in real competitions back
in 2016 they actually disguised them to
look like other types of running shoes
no joke they were undercover shoes for
the first year of their existence again
from Alex Hutchinson during that same
podcast once Nike had these prototypes
and they were pretty sure that they were
they started giving out these disguised
prototypes that were disguised to look
like other shoes and then at the
Olympics in Rio in 2016 the top three
finishers in the men's marathon we're
all wearing these disguised prototypes
of a shoe that no one had ever heard of
and the winner of the women's marathon
was also wearing a disguised prototype
of these shoes seriously how wild is it
that people are setting World Records
with some kind of futuristic zoomx super
foam running shoes that people are
talking about banning the shoe for being
too good and that the shoe company is
actually having to disguise the shoe
prototypes to secretly sneak them into
competitions the point of all of this is
that yes the shoes do matter and what
the shoes are built for is heel striking
to give yourself that little bit of
extra bounce with each step if Sonic is
forefoot striking or toe running like we
see him do seems to be giving up a huge
advantage so does that mean that Sonic
is actually running incorrectly well not
necessarily you see all of this comes
from the world of competitive running
where people are trying to shave a few
seconds off their world record time and
that 4% of extra efficiency matters but
there are some runners who espouse a
completely different viewpoint
the idea that forefoot striking is
actually a better healthier and more
natural way to run it's a big part of
what drives the push towards barefoot
running that's gained so much momentum
over the last couple years people who
either choose to run completely barefoot
or running shoes with flat soles and no
padded heels specifically designed to
simulate a barefoot running field a
study in the Journal of applied
physiology examined the force exerted by
people running barefoot on a treadmill
and found that when landing on their toe
is a graph of the force experienced by
the runners body was a smooth curve
but when heel striking there was this
big spike in the force curve that spike
is not only an unexpected jolt to your
body each and every time that you land
potential cause for injury but it also
interrupts the natural smoothness of the
runner the bounce of the heel striking
the ground and the force of the runner
pushing off the ground happen at
slightly different times throwing off
the actual running motion of the body
for a human runner odds are they're not
gonna notice the difference
but given Sonic's incredible levels of
acceleration he's exerting a lot more
force than a normal human runner would
just some quick back in the napkin
calculations here but reusing some of
our numbers from the previous episode
during Sonic's run to the Pacific Ocean
he accelerates at a rate of 490 1.7
meters per second Square and if we go
with his canonical weight of 35
kilograms or 77 pounds that means that
he's exerting 17,000 209 Newton's of
force that's three thousand eight
hundred sixty nine pounds of force which
is 53.2 times his own body weight
compare that to the fact that human
runners push off the ground with a force
that peaks at about two point five times
their body weight Sonic's legs are
pushing with more than 20 times more
force than a typical runner and
considering that fact it makes the
obvious why sonic would rather run on
his toes and rely on the power of his
own legs instead of striking with his
heels and feeling that extra bit of jolt
every single time his foot lands so is
sonic running incorrectly well for as
weird as the toe holes seem to me no it
appears that Sonic is running in the
easiest most natural organic way that a
two-legged humanoid can run Nike you may
not like the fact that I'm broadcasting
this message out to the world but this
is the ideal running form at least if
you're a mobian who's capable of pushing
the ground with over
3,800 pounds of force every time you
take a step as far as us humans though
keep bouncing off your foam pads my
friends or don't since you know you're
supposed to be indoors right now so just
watch the sonic movie again hashtag with
me because what else is there to do at
this point play doom eternal I suppose
anyway that's just a theory Oh game fear
nope it isn't it's a film theory thanks
for watching also can I just say how
weird it is that the toes of his shoes
wore away but they show the heel of his
sock and that one just so happens to be
worn away I just think it means that
socks need to be stronger all around