Stoko’s innovative clothing helps to keep your stride on point, so you can run efficiently and protect against injury.

Purists will say the only gear you need for running is a good pair of sneakers. But anyone who has ever run long distances—especially in oppressive heat and sticky humidity—knows that what you wear above your ankles can make or break your experience.

The evolution of fitness apparel has brought runners lightweight, breathable fabrics that wick sweat to help keep you cool. It’s a prime example of functional clothing—meaning, clothing that does more than just look good—which is crucial to running without chafing, rubbing, and other irritations.

But runners’ pains aren’t just skin deep. Anywhere from 20 percent to 79 percent of runners report a lower-body injury each year, according to a systematic review published in Sports Medicine. The most frequently injured site? The knee.

Over the course of just one eight-minute mile, the average runner takes 1,400 steps, each of which produces ground reaction forces of about two and a half times your body weight. If you’re running and your knee collapses inward every time your foot makes contact with the ground, that puts abnormal stress on the joint and puts you at an increased risk for potential injury.

That’s where supportive apparel comes in. Whether you’re suffering from an overuse injury or recovering from an ACL or MCL tear, you’d typically put on your running kit first, before potentially adding a supportive product, like a brace, on top. But what if your running kit was your supportive product?

That’s the premise behind Stoko, a new company launching supportive apparel for athletes. Picture a knee brace melded with a compression tight, except it doesn’t look like some crazy medical contraption you’d leave the hospital with. Instead, “it’s everyday athletic apparel with integrated support seamlessly built in,” explains Joseph Ardell, Stoko’s head of product. And while conventional support solutions can be bulky and cumbersome, restricting natural movement to keep you from any little motion that could compromise your joints, Stoko K1 Tempo tights take the opposite approach.

Stoko’s tights are made from a technical knit fabric that allows for breathability and targeted compression—you’ll notice them more than a barely-there tight, but they won’t inhibit your stride.

Ninety feet of lightweight cables are embedded into the tights, anchored around the base of the calf and up at the hips. They brace your knee to prevent inward motion, “promoting you to move through the gait cycle in a way that loads your body in a normative pattern,” says Ardell. This action can help you avoid unnecessary stress and reduce risk of injuries. Two small dials in the waistband allow runners to customize their level of support.

It’s not just about your knees: “Our support system actually spans the entirety of the lower body,” says Ardell. “In a survey of over 100 active users of the K1, we found 99 percent of athletes reported an increase in knee stability, as well as 90 percent in the hips and 80 percent in the lower back.” Stoko is pursuing third party testing with various academic institutions and test houses to validate their in-house findings.

Stoko isn’t the only brand rethinking functional fitness apparel. Whoop Body allows users to wear a fitness tracking sensor across multiple locations on the body (whether that’s in a sports bra, arm sleeves, or boxer shorts). Athos Coaching System uses electromyography technology built right into their clothing to measure how hard your muscles are working while you sweat, and to deliver personalized, actionable insights via a partner app. And apparel from brands like Omorpho and Kilo Gear are featuring weights sewn into the fabric to add extra load to your active muscles during exercise, which may help you make gains faster.

Ultimately, “a PR isn’t made on race day,” Ardell says. “It’s made on the five percent more effort that you put in during the months of training and preparation.” With clothing companies like Stoko and others finding ways to make clothes that help runners train better, longer, and safer, personal records are about to be shattered more often.