Choosing The Right Running Shoe

Dec 23, 2024

Which running shoe should I get? This question comes across my channels often. I understand why. I have run somewhere in the neighborhood of 75,000 miles over the course of my running career. I have worked in the footwear industry, competed in a wide range of endurance events that have spanned a fair amount of different terrain and distances, and spoken about these things on some of the biggest podcasts in the world. However, despite those data points, I come nowhere near putting my foot in the totality of what is available in the running shoe market. Popular running shoe review site, RunRepeat, reviewed and tested over 487 running shoe models as of their 2024 lab tests. Despite this, they won’t even necessarily answer this question in its totality for any individual asking, as they have their own individual needs that likely get reflected in their reviews. In other words, what is perfect for one person may be dead wrong for another.

Responding to this question by politely replying, “no clue good luck,” feels equally unhelpful. Just because I cannot possibly provide you with the answer to the best brand and model for you, does not mean I cannot help you properly go on this journey, and minimize as many mistakes as possible. For these reasons, I usually approach this question by aiming to, as best I can, teach someone what I believe is the best path forward in identifying the right options.

The right options are also a moving target. Meaning, what is best for keeping you healthy and comfortable now, may not be the place you should be in the long term. In other words, with subtle and consistent work, you may be able to expand your options, all while lowering the likelihood of a specific shoe causing discomfort and injury.

The best starting point I have found is to begin with foot strength and health. Like any other part of our bodies, if you are stronger and more resilient in that area, you are less likely to experience negative outcomes when exposed to forces. This is why athletes do things like strength work, plyometrics, mobility, massage, etc… We know that building a strong and resilient body will help keep them healthy and consistent in their training. This consistency is the biggest factor in long term development, so these practices often allow them to be exposed to more quality uninterrupted training over time. Our feet are no different.

The problem here is many runners are not at this point. This does not mean they have to abstain from running before they thoroughly develop their feet and lower legs. It just means they may want to consider some strength training inputs that can help get them to this point over time, in tandem with using the right tools on their feet. This will help them load at a proper rate while maintaining their running program.

When available, I often find the best starting point for most people is to visit a local running store. Go into the store with the mindset that you are gathering information about yourself, while finding the right shoe for now. At many of these stores, the staff have been trained to examine your mechanics and patterns in a way that they can help narrow down the list of shoes that are right for you in the short term. They are incentivized for you to feel comfortable and happy, so you don’t come back to return a shoe, or worse yet avoid their business for future purchases. Knowing this can help answer the question of what is right for you now. When you go into the store, after being examined, the staff will typically bring out a few pairs of shoes for you to try. They just narrowed the list down for you. The next step is more up to you. Once you have a few pairs to try, trust your intuition based on which one feels the most comfortable. The shoe that allows you to flow through your gate cycle feeling the most like the shoe is a natural extension of your foot, rather than something that is forcing you to do something that feels awkward or unnatural, is the center of the target. This may differ when standing versus running, so always ask to do some short strides in the shoe before committing. Most stores will have you do this anyway, either on an indoor treadmill or on the sidewalk alongside the shop. Once completed, you have done a good job of identifying the shoe that is likely to keep you satisfied in the short term.

I have been in 100s of specialty stores over the years, and one area many of them are limited in is helping you best plan for the future. Meaning, what should you do after and alongside finding the right shoe for now. Neglecting this second part typically at least limits your future options compared to what you just bought, and at worst narrows them further. The latter is especially true if the right shoe for you at the moment allows for you to develop further imbalances and weaknesses. The classic example of this is when someone gets put into a highly cushioned shoe, stability shoe, or insert to help with an injury or weakness. This may be a great or necessary tool in the short term that allows you to continue running, but may also create an environment for more or worse issues down the road.

The shoe that you just identified can tell you a lot about your current state, and give you a roadmap to what can be helpful longterm. For example, if you end up in a highly cushioned shoe, it is likely your feet are a bit weak when exposed to hard and varied surfaces. Just like any weakness, this is correctable. Some simple exercises like toe strength, towel crunches, bent and straight knee calf raise, tibialis raises, and tools like toe spacers may be worth considering in your routine to help offset the lack of exposure while in a highly cushioned shoe. There are also great passive strategies to slowly incorporate as well. The act of doing, at the right dose, can help. This means exposing your foot to firm and varied surfaces gradually over time, can help you strengthen your feet in the same type of movement you are aiming to improve. For someone with very weak feet, this may be as simple as walking around barefoot at home, or in a firm and flexible pair of shoes.

It is alway best to start easy, assess, and progress. Just like any other strength program, you want to load just enough, recover, and repeat. Gather your current exposure to surfaces foreign to that of your running shoe characteristics and progress from there. Always assess the following day in order to make sure you are not overloading. An example would be if someone has weak feet and highly cushioned running shoes they may want to add some barefoot walking at home and/or in a firm and flexible pair of shoes. Let’s say they add 2-hours of this on day one and the next day they notice their feet and ankles are a bit more sore than normal. It is wise to not double down on the prior day's stimulus, but rather take a day off from it, let things fully recover, and then introduce the stimulus again. Done right, this person will likely be able to add more exposure to this stimulus over time, and eventually add more.

Eventually this person will get to a point where they feel comfortable with the new stressor of walking around their house barefoot or in firm and flexible shoes, and simply continuing to do so won’t likely be enough to further progress. At this stage, they can consider increasing the stimulus from a different environment. This may come in the form of introducing something firm and flexible to their running routine. Just like the prior example, you want to do this gradually. It would likely be unwise at this point to ditch their current highly cushioned running shoe for a firm and flexible pair entirely. They would be better off phasing it in gradually, following the same cues as before. This may be as simple as using them for their shortest and easiest run for the week. If more conservative is necessary, it may simply be wearing them for a portion of a run at first. Over time, as strength and flexibility improves, more exposure will be available to them.

What about the other end of the spectrum? With the advent of longer distance races growing in popularity and super shoes being highly cushioned and soft, it can be the case that this style of shoe is optimal for event day. This could be a super shoe on race day, or a softer shoe for an ultramarathon to help you prolong your ability to tolerate the impacts of being out for a very long time. Your foot and mechanics may behave differently in these types of shoes, and it may be unwise to expose yourself to this for the first time at an event where you are likely to produce the most physical stress to your body than any other point in your training. This scenario may mean that someone who gravitates towards a more firm and flexible shoe, may benefit from exposure to something that better matches their highly cushioned event day shoe. This also may allow them to increase their training load, by leveraging their strong feet to go further yet when more protected. As you probably assumed, the best way to do this is the way that allows you to maintain strong feet, versus gradually creating an environment where highly cushioned shoes become the only option, similar to the first example. In other words, keep your firm and flexible shoes in your rotation often, do not abandon foot strengthening exercises, and use the cushioned and performance shoes just enough to help increase your training exposure and practice event day specifics in them.

Next I want to step away from the extremes, and look at the question in a way that I believe is the long term gold standard for runners. This standard is having as many options as possible, so you are able to use the best shoe for a specific job, whether that be a fast road 5 KM or a 100 mile trail race.

I like to call the above scenario the optimal shoe quiver. This simply means rather than viewing running shoes as which is best, but rather which is best for the job, without limiting the future. This usually entails having variety in your shoe quiver. As you go through training, you will be able to use firm, soft, performance, recovery, etc… throughout. This has the added benefit of cost savings. The reason for this is because if you spread out your shoes exposure, they will typically provide more total miles of usage. It also allows you to use a pair of shoes for its intended purpose, which often means it will last longer than if you expose it to terrain and training that it is not designed to tolerate as well.

This may look something like this. Build a rotation of shoes that include something firm and flexible, soft and stable, performance oriented, and terrain specific. The variety of running intensities, volumes, and terrains the user plans will often necessitate more options. Someone using running more casually, or as a supplement to other activities, may be able to build a more narrow shoe quiver.

To summarize all of this up, the best approach is to use the tools available, like running specialty shops and strength programs to set the foundation of what you can do now. Ultimately, stay attentive to what you want to do in the future, and begin building gradually towards that goal. Over time, the outcome will yield a scenario of resilience that allows for more robust characteristics, so if a mistake is made, the consequences will be much easier to navigate. Viewing running shoes as partners that compliment one another is better than viewing them as right or wrong. At the end of the day, shoes are tools, if used right, the job gets done, if used wrong, errors and mistakes are more likely to occur.

Choosing The Right Running Shoe

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