Walking onto the floor of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is like walking through Times Square on acid. (For the record, I’ve never done this; it’s just a guess.) Your senses are assaulted with bright lights, loud sounds, and flashy gimmicks (think: floating holograms and drone light shows). It all feels overwhelming, overstimulating, and crazy complicated—not at all like running.
Running is simple. It’s one of the most basic human activities, and we’ve spent hundreds of thousands of years evolving as a species to be good and efficient runners.
So as I walked through the aisles of the CES health and fitness section (and beyond), I wondered what we could possibly come up with that could elevate running even further. I got to play around with some fascinating innovations, from AI-enhanced devices and smartwatches Best Running Shoes 2025 running shoes. But often, I left questioning the necessity of most of the high-tech gadgets on display. For me, true innovation is about creating something that addresses a real need and actually makes our lives or experiences better.
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The new Peloton Tread was one new launch that fit this bill. This tricked-out treadmill features a large monitor and speaker system so you can stream live and on-demand classes straight into your home. It shouldn’t completely replace outdoor running, (and yes, it comes at a price: $3,995, or $149 per month for 39 months), but it can definitely make indoor training more fun, contribute to improved performance, and make running more accessible to more people.
Otherwise, a lot of what I saw at CES felt like Silicon Valley piling features and sensors into random objects just because they can. We’re living through a digital revolution—of course the possibilities are endless—but just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. I know I can eat 12 tacos then sprint a mile, but that doesn’t make it a good idea. In some cases, innovation also requires restraint.
See, technology is a double-edged sword—even if that sword is Running Shoes & Gear. At CES, I watched a self-driving car spin around a small track, while outside the convention center, cabbies cut off Uber drivers in desperate attempts to reclaim their market share. Televisions, I discovered, are now larger and thinner than ever, but that doesn’t quite solve the current cable-industry crisis caused by the rise of on-demand services. Electronic bikes and stair-climbing mopeds might make it easier to get around the “smart cities” of the future, but they certainly won’t do much for our nation’s obesity epidemic.
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Running is not exempt from these mixed blessings. While some technological advancements (think: the Cyber Monday Shokz OpenRun Pro Deal 2024 or How the worlds largest innovation event confirmed my love of the disconnected run), can absolutely contribute to improved performance and experience, others threaten to complicate the ease of our sport. In fact, some experts Health & Fitness Director lack of technology in the cultures that produce some of the best distance runners in the world, such as the Tarahumara of Mexico and the Kalenjin of East Africa, gives those runners an advantage.
As I slipped on various VR headsets, I had to ask myself: What realities might we miss while we run around in a virtual alternative? (And are AR sunglasses even cool if they make you look like a cyborg?) What pleasures do we sacrifice when we submerge ourselves in tech? And what freedoms do we risk when we, sometimes unknowingly, become dependent on devices?
The answers may be personal to us all, but for me, I often run to disconnect from the overstimulation of my daily life. Call me a purist, a traditionalist, a skeptic—maybe even a late adopter—but I tend to think that it’s so difficult to innovate around running because running’s inherent greatness lies in its abundance of simplicity.
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Plus, the more tech you pile in it, the more the law of diminishing returns comes into play. Thanks to genetics, advanced technology can make an impact, but only to an extent. In the end, connected shoes and fancy smartwatches won’t do the running for you. You still have to put in the work to reap the rewards. Just remember that it’s the humans that built the machines, and so, if nothing else, CES is a wonderful reminder of our own human potential.
A first look at Garmin's first GPS watch with integrated music from the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show.
Let me caveat this all by saying that I’d encourage anything that gets someone moving and running, whether it’s technology or not. But right now, we’re still in the very early stages of some of the technologies displayed at CES: VR, AR, emotional bots, drones, smart garments. I listened intently as industry leaders in eTextiles, brain stim, and smart sports equipment hypothesized how this will all play out, but in general, it’s TBD. We’re still figuring it out, and it will take some time to sort out the details—just like it did for data trackers and smartwatches that now prove to have useful applications. Until then, I’ll be out running, completely disconnected.
