The Paris Olympics will host a countless number of fast runners. But perhaps the ones with the most potential for speedy, record-breaking times are going the farthest.

It’s no secret that marathon times over the past decade have dropped significantly. And while we have novel science-informed training techniques as well as more professional year-round runners dedicating their lives to the sport to thank, we also have technology.

So-called supershoes have transformed distance running in the past eight years and are with little doubt playing a role to bring marathon times down in both the women’s and men’s races and in elite and novice times.

Inverse sat down with Nike's footwear designers to break down the technology that makes these marathon shoes so fast — and what the future of running shoes may be.

In 1994, when Wesley Crusher left Starfleet to join the enigmatic Traveler in dimensions of space and time beyond the known universe, Wil Wheaton was saying goodbye to Star Trek. Or so he thought. As a child actor, Wheaton had joined the cast of The Next Generation at the age of 15, playing resident space prodigy Wesley, a character who was written as a kind of younger version of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, whose middle name was, in fact, “Wesley.”

Throughout the early seasons of The Next Generation, older (and crankier) Star Trek fans sometimes derided Wesley’s wide-eyed enthusiasm and status as a super-genius teenager. But now, as Wesley Crusher returns in Star Trek: Prodigy to guide another generation of teens, it’s very clear that Wil Wheaton is having the last laugh.