I was reading a bike mag recently and in it were a few adds for cycling shoes with carbon soles. I thought cool I gotta get me a pair of them, but they seemed very expensive.
Then on the weekend I was cleaning my Carnac road shoes that are 7 years old and noticed that it said carbon on the bottom. I then read the label on the inside of the shoe and it said carbon sole.
So what I want to know is: Have carbon soles really been around this long and if so why am I only seeing them advertised now? Do they really make a difference to plastic soles or is it another marketing gimmick?

CHEERS.

Mark