Did you know that fiberglass thermoplastic prepreg belts can improve the performance of running shoe insoles?
The sole of a running shoe usually has three layers: a durable outsole, a midsole that absorbs most impacts, and an insole that is most in direct contact with the foot.
In order to make the lightest and most durable sneakers, many carbon fiber composite midsoles and other shoe components have appeared on the market over the years. These carbon fiber composite reinforced shoes are typically aimed at elite athletes, providing runners with top-of-the-line stride and speed.
However, carbon fiber is also very hard, which can negatively affect runners' feet, legs and muscles, and for runners in general, fiberglass is a better, more flexible, and more forgiving material choice, improving the performance of running shoes by providing smoother, sustained energy feedback to the runner's feet. Importantly, they are comfortable, the wearer is less tired, and they make the shoes more durable. There is a lot of potential.
The company recently developed and commercialized their latest innovation: a patent-pending running shoe insole made of two layers of neoprene foam sandwiched between a unidirectional, continuous fiberglass reinforced thermoplastic prepreg tape. Over the past few years, the development and increased availability of unidirectional thermoplastic prepreg tapes has "been a game changer." The game-changing nature of these materials is twofold. First of all, the unidirectional and continuous direction of the fibers, if arranged along the width of the shoe as in the original stretched fiberglass rod design, can be guided in such a way that the runner's stride length is extended. The developer said: "Wearing running shoes is to increase forward movement." When a runner presses down on the insole with his foot, the regular neoprene insole absorbs the applied energy, but the fiberglass composite insole transfers the energy back to the runner, creating a more controlled spring effect and extending the stride length. Fiberglass seems to "recover energy".
