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My Shoes Don't Fit!

Since shoe fit affects foot function, the marriage between foot and shoe needs to be a harmonious one. People with foot problems are very often people with shoe problems. Your feet:

The most common trait of shoe fit that people share is.....SHORT SHOES! People are wearing shoes that aren't long enough. Short shoes can actually contribute to bunions. Short shoes can also affect how your big toe functions. When getting the right size shoe, one should get their feet measured. Narrow shoes cause problems as well. What kind of shoes? When trying on shoes, you should try on both shoes and walk around. Does the shoe look impossibly small? Why Running Shoes Don't Work

The running shoe model needs to be fixed. Pronation, motion control, cushioning, and stability shoes? The paradigm that running shoes are built upon is the problem.

Running shoes are built upon two central premises, impact forces and pronation. Pronation:

We have become inundated with limiting pronation via motion control shoes. Running shoes are therefore designed to limit this pronation. Essentially, running shoes are developed and designed to put the body in "proper" alignment. Similarly, another study by Butler (2007) found that motion control shoes showed no difference in peak pronation when compared to cushioning shoes. If excessive pronation does not cause injuries to the degree that everyone thinks, and if motion control shoes don't even alter pronation, what's the point of a motion control shoe?

Cushioning:

Impact forces are the other major scoundrel of running injuries. To combat this fear, running shoes, particular cushioning ones, are to the rescue. The first question is, do cushioning shoes do their job?

Basically, this study tells us that cushioned running shoes decrease peak pressure when compared to a Tennis shoe.

Underestimating our Body: Impact forces as feedback:

The body adapts to both shoe and surface adjusting impact forces via changes joint stiffness, the way the foot strikes, and a concept called muscle tuning.

Shoes not only impact this, but surface type does too. A shoe influences how it adapts. Shoe midsoles do not change, or marginally change impact forces anyway. Barefoot running?

An interesting thing to note is that the initial peak impact force is absent in barefoot running when compared to running with shoes. A recent study by Squadrone et al.(2009) compared running shoes, barefoot running, and running in Vibram Five Fingers. They demonstrated reduced impact forces, shorter ground contact and stride length, but increased stride frequency while running barefoot (and in Vibrams) as compared to running with shoes. Running shoes do not utilize the elastic storage and return as well as barefoot or minimal shoes. More energy is lost with shoes than with barefoot running (Alexander and Bennett, 1989). Running in a minimal shoe allows for better utilization of this system.

Chances are you've been running in shoes for 20+ years. Instead it was to point out the problems with Running Shoe classification.