Shoes, where do I begin? You may be thinking, “What do you mean? There can’t be that much to choosing shoes, right? Just pick the pretty ones” Sad thing is, you couldn’t be more WRONG! It took me over a year to figure this out and hopefully I can share that information with you quickly here. I’ve been wanting to write this for a while, but being a full time professional student with a part time job and trying to stay in shape tends to take up the majority of your time…so I apologize for the late and sporadic posts, but hopefully I can find more time in the near future. I am currently here working in San Francisco with my fiancée for the month.
Where to begin… the first thing you must realize about shoes is that they are all designed for a specific foot type, trek type, and activity. One of my favorite shoe stores is roadrunnersports.com. They tend to have the best prices and have an easy labeling system.
How to choose your shoe
This is how I typically go about choosing a new shoe now:
1. What am I using the shoe for?
There are several different styles designed for each activity:
Running, Trail running, Crossfit, Tri/Duathlon, Crosstraining, Walking, etc
2. What type of stride or trek do I have?
This part is EXTREMELY important! Depending on how you run and how your feet land and move, determines your stride and your trek.
There are Overpronators, Underpronators, and those with Normal stride
Pronation is the movement your foot makes as it hits the ground. Typically a person’s heal strikes first as the foot follows through. If your foot rotates inwards and you push off mostly with your big toe, you are an overpronator; if your foot rotates outward putting the majority of stress on the outside of your foot, you are an underpronator or supinator. People with flat feet tend to overpronate and those with high arches underpronate. Those lucky individuals with normal arches tend to have a normal pronation.
If you are curious as to how you pronate, you can visit certain shoe stores that watch you run and can tell you how you run and the type of shoe you need.
Where to begin… the first thing you must realize about shoes is that they are all designed for a specific foot type, trek type, and activity. One of my favorite shoe stores is roadrunnersports.com. They tend to have the best prices and have an easy labeling system.
How to choose your shoe
This is how I typically go about choosing a new shoe now:
1. What am I using the shoe for?
There are several different styles designed for each activity:
Running, Trail running, Crossfit, Tri/Duathlon, Crosstraining, Walking, etc
2. What type of stride or trek do I have?
This part is EXTREMELY important! Depending on how you run and how your feet land and move, determines your stride and your trek.
There are Overpronators, Underpronators, and those with Normal stride
Pronation is the movement your foot makes as it hits the ground. Typically a person’s heal strikes first as the foot follows through. If your foot rotates inwards and you push off mostly with your big toe, you are an overpronator; if your foot rotates outward putting the majority of stress on the outside of your foot, you are an underpronator or supinator. People with flat feet tend to overpronate and those with high arches underpronate. Those lucky individuals with normal arches tend to have a normal pronation.
If you are curious as to how you pronate, you can visit certain shoe stores that watch you run and can tell you how you run and the type of shoe you need.
If you overpronate, a stability shoe is usually preferred. At roadrunnersports.com, they offer performance stability which tend to be lighter, stability, and stability plus shoes. They also offer motion control which are supposed to help guide your feet and prevent that overpronation.
For neutral pronators, they also offer a wide variety of neutral and performance neutral shoes.
If you underpronate, you probably need to find shoes that support your higher arches.
This is an interesting website that asks all of the right information, although I don’t necessarily agree with its results every time-- http://www.runnersworld.com/shoe-finder/shoe-advisor
3. Making a decision
Now you know what type of shoe you need, but how do you choose from all of the brands and styles? There are tons of shoe brands, each better than another for a certain person and their foot- remember, this is highly specialized, so what works for me, may not be the best for you, but I will tell you a few of my favorite brands.
For running, I have tried Brooks, Mizuno, Asics, Reebok, Nike, and have just ordered my first pair of Altra, just to name a few…let’s just say I’ve been around the running shoe world….
Of all of these that I’ve used, my favorites by far are asics and mainly mizunos- these shoes are awesome! Their wave plate technology is like running on a cloud and I will never go back!
I do, still branch out every so often to test the latest thing and make sure I’m not missing out due to my biases. I have just ordered my first pair of Altras and can’t wait to get them on. These shoes are different in that not only do they provide extreme support and cushion, but they have a zero drop. This means that both your heel and forefoot are the same distance from the ground, promoting proper form to reduce initial impact by 3–5 times. This style also encourages the pose running style, which has been shown to decrease injury and increase run time. I am hoping these shoes will be the answer to my chronic shin splints, so fingers crossed!
My recommendation for finding the proper shoes would be to go a store that can determine your running pattern and shop in person at the store so you can see and try shoes on. I usually do my research online first by reading reviews, reading about the product: strengths, weaknesses and what the company designed them to do, then I go and see it in store for myself to try it on and maybe speak to the shop attendants, if they seem knowledgeable…sometimes you have to be careful here- all too often they are just trying to make a sale or I know more than they do.
Well, I hope this is enough to help you understand the basics and to get you started. If you have any questions or comments about shoes, please, don’t hesitate! With that, I leave you --- Happy shoe hunting!
Peace, Love, & Strength,
Jayme
For neutral pronators, they also offer a wide variety of neutral and performance neutral shoes.
If you underpronate, you probably need to find shoes that support your higher arches.
This is an interesting website that asks all of the right information, although I don’t necessarily agree with its results every time-- http://www.runnersworld.com/shoe-finder/shoe-advisor
3. Making a decision
Now you know what type of shoe you need, but how do you choose from all of the brands and styles? There are tons of shoe brands, each better than another for a certain person and their foot- remember, this is highly specialized, so what works for me, may not be the best for you, but I will tell you a few of my favorite brands.
For running, I have tried Brooks, Mizuno, Asics, Reebok, Nike, and have just ordered my first pair of Altra, just to name a few…let’s just say I’ve been around the running shoe world….
Of all of these that I’ve used, my favorites by far are asics and mainly mizunos- these shoes are awesome! Their wave plate technology is like running on a cloud and I will never go back!
I do, still branch out every so often to test the latest thing and make sure I’m not missing out due to my biases. I have just ordered my first pair of Altras and can’t wait to get them on. These shoes are different in that not only do they provide extreme support and cushion, but they have a zero drop. This means that both your heel and forefoot are the same distance from the ground, promoting proper form to reduce initial impact by 3–5 times. This style also encourages the pose running style, which has been shown to decrease injury and increase run time. I am hoping these shoes will be the answer to my chronic shin splints, so fingers crossed!
My recommendation for finding the proper shoes would be to go a store that can determine your running pattern and shop in person at the store so you can see and try shoes on. I usually do my research online first by reading reviews, reading about the product: strengths, weaknesses and what the company designed them to do, then I go and see it in store for myself to try it on and maybe speak to the shop attendants, if they seem knowledgeable…sometimes you have to be careful here- all too often they are just trying to make a sale or I know more than they do.
Well, I hope this is enough to help you understand the basics and to get you started. If you have any questions or comments about shoes, please, don’t hesitate! With that, I leave you --- Happy shoe hunting!
Peace, Love, & Strength,
Jayme