Expensive Running Shoes = Higher Injury Rates?

Wow, really makes you think.  Its funny as im reading the article my knee is throbbing from this mornings run. 

Any thoughts on the 5 finger shoes?

MY ART guy started using the 5 fingers and likes them, I think.  but he's an ultra runner.  can't trust what they think

I don't disagree with any of that really.  The industry has designed their shoes around the consumer who thinks they need 3" of cushion while they run.  But that is not correct at all for good running mechanics.

I think  I was the 2nd barefoot runner to latch onto VFF right after Barefoot Ted first tried them out on loan from Vibram back 3-4 years ago.  I ran a marathon with them in Padua, Italy in 2006 and thought they were pretty close to running barefoot.  I used them that day because temps were in the 80s and barefooters dont like running on hot pavement.  Normally I use them when I run after dark.  The only downside to them is they do make your feet sweat and therefore your VFF really stink after a while.

I also use them when I run trailruns... they are fantastic over gravel and rocks.

BTW... I really recommend reading Born To Run..... it's a fabulous read.

i heard Joe Friel (sp) speak at a race a few years ago and he had some interesting things to say....

he said, more or less, how we run is "cultural" and in american we are a "heal strike" culture and we enhance that by looking for thicker sole shoes. when we do this, we force ourselves to land on one bone of the foot and that is the heal. when we do this, it sends a shock wave through the leg that eventually leads to more injury....summed up.....thick sole/cushion shoes are not good for you becuase again, they almost force you to heal strike.

contrastly he spoke of south african runners (their culture) and they tend to land with their whole foot hitting the ground at once. this is good because there are a LOT of little bones in the foot and when you flat foot strike this invovles all those little bones and the force is not only better absorbed, it is better distributed sending less stress to the knee, hip etc. South Africans tend to shop for "thin" soled shoes and long story short, they generally experience less injurys than their american counterparts...

therefore when it comes to shoe cushion and sole thicknes.......less is more......

Kenyan runners, as a rule, dont start running in shoes until they reach 17 years of age... from Born To Run which also points out that Roger Bannister, Frank Shorter, Jim Ryan and most other American distance runners never had injuries when they ran prior to the introduction of the cushy heel by Nike in 1972.

I particularly like the Chapter 25 of Macdougal's book Born To Run... where, among other facts we all secretly suspected, he cites research that correlates the rate of running injury with the cost of the shoe: the more the shoe costs the higher the rate of injury. His recommendation is to, effectively, go to Goodwill and find the oldest pair of canvas shoes left over from the 60s. Actually anything prior to 1972 when Nike introduced the Cushy Heel.

He also debunks all that crap about pronation citing Paula Radcliff's trainer who says the foot is SUPPOSED to pronate; not be immobilized so it doesnt pronate.  This cuts into the Nike endorsed claim that we should pay $120 every 90 days to eliminate the wear down on the shoe from pronation.  What marketing gem that one is.....

i began working out for the first time since high school this january. so...naturally, i wanted some good shoes for running. i go to the most highly regarded and recommended shoe store in my area, 'running fit'. their sales people take a look at my feet, analyzed my walking and running gait...and put me in the Saucony Stabil 6, a very overbuilt motion control shoe.

after one run...my feet were DYING!! especially my arches. so...i came online, got on some forums for runners and for triathletes, and my fellow amateur athletes suggested i need even more support and suggest i get superfeet insoles. i got the insoles...and it helped a little. but not much. the pain continued...and my training was severely hampered.

eventually, i decided to go see a highly thought of local pedorthist. he's the pedorthotic consult for the detroit pistons, detroit shock, michigan state spartans men and womens basketball team, the US olympic ski team, and various individual pro athletes from many sports from running to mountain biking...

he also analyzed my foot...analyzed my gait...scanned my foot...made custom orthotics...and put me in a shoe WITH MUCH LESS SUPPORT!!!!!! he put me in a Brooks Defyance with custom orthotics with much smaller arch support than those crazy superfeet inserts. during the course of my appointment, which last a good hour or more, we started chatting. and he said that the modern athletic shoe is so overbuilt...and all they do is cause injury. and that for all but the most malformed feet and knees, less support is always better. he went on to say he'd put me in a shoe with even less support than the defyance except that since the majority of us grow up using shoes with grossly overbuilt heels and midsoles, most of us have lost the strength and flexibility that the foot would otherwise naturally possess...i'd basically atrophied and crippled my feet with the shoes i've been using my whole life. so putting me in something with even less support than the Defyance would likely cause injury as well.

so i started running with my new custom orthotics and my new Brooks Defyance. at first, it felt WONDERFUL! but then my feet started to hurt again. so i called the pedorthist...and he told me to take it easy and let me feet strengthen. he was right...after a little rest and slowling increasing my miles/intensity, my feet felt great again!

now...since then and since that conversation back in february, i decided to slowly switch over to shoes with even less support. i'm now in the Brooks T6, a minimal racing flat similar to the Nike Free. i am now the fastest i have ever been...with fewer injuries, aches and pains than ever.

less is more, people. less is more. the athletic shoe industry has been crippling us since elementary school. and it really stunned me when this pedorthist working with dozens and dozens of elite level athletes stated that all the fancy technology is all garbage. and he said it has been known for years and years that modern shoes are overbuilt...and many elite level athletes have continued to wear minimal footwear for years and years. it's us amateur, average joe, weekend warriors that the athletic shoe industry has been targeting...because we don't know any better.

sad...so sad...

Edited by slowpoke77 2009-06-04 5:06 AM

... makes sense to me. I can tell you that when my feet are sore, the thing that makes them feel best is to take off my shoes and walk around the house barefoot.

Granted, it's an unconventional bunch on the whole, but it makes sense to listen seriously to the folks who have found a way to handle big miles without getting injured.

One of the interesting things about Christopher McDougall's personal story (as told in Born to Run) is that he is a BIG guy (200+ lbs and well over 6 feet) who struggled to run a handful of miles without pain and injury before he changed his stride and training to match some of the principles now associated with the various barefoot running programs. All in all, it's a fascinating (and highly inspiring) book which takes readers into the culture of ultra-running, the biomechanics (and evolutionary advantages) of distance running, and the relationship between over-engineered shoes and higher injury rates among runners. Lots of food for thought and, for me, a much need push toward a different training regimen.

I listened to a podcast by Christopher McDougall a week or two ago (thanks Geezerjock!) and became very intrigued by this. I ordered some VFFs this week and they were just delivered to my house.

Before I started running I went to a reputable running store and after doing their stuff they put me into motion control shoes because I over pronate. As I started running I experience bad ankle pain that had me seeking a podiatrist. By the time I finally got in to see him the pain was reducing but he got me into custom orthotics. I admit that I no longer have ankle pain, but I now find that I need MORE support in my everyday shoes! When I started running I was definitely a midfoot striker but I find myself now moving towards heel striking. I believe the idea that the motion control shoes and the orthotics are making my feet weaker. I think if I had just waited it out a little longer I would have been fine without the orthotics.

I've already been going around the house more in bare feet and I'm gonna start walking around in the VFF's when they arrive today but I'm not sure how soon I'll try running in them. I've just also started thinking that maybe I should remove the orthotics and go back to running without them. I'm just not sure how to work the transition back to "normal" feet.

Edited by MDHillSlug 2009-06-04 3:38 PM

running in neutral shoes is not for everyone. To be able to run well in neutral shoes or barefoot requires a lot of strength in your feet and lower legs. Some people are built with very strong, high arched feet....others are not. Just like some people are built like linebackers and others are not. For those that are built more like linebackers and less like runners, some stability and motion control is needed in the shoe. It should be noted that support shoes do not immobilize the foot...they limit the rate of pronation.

honestly I think the biggest reason that built up shoes became popular is from demand...not from fascist shoe companies. For some reason, tackling a marathon as your first big running goal has become very popular, especially among those new to exercising (many of which are over weight). The marathon generates a ton of stress on your feet and lower legs and is quite the beating to even an experienced runner finishing in the 3 hour range who's legs and feet have spent years adapting to the stress. Even with those legs, adding another 2 hours and 100 or so pounds would hurt.....imagine all of that without the years of adaptation and you get this new demographic. Of course the sales of soft supportive shoes are going to skyrocket, and since those shoes are dominating sales, and there is much more room for technological 'growth' (come on...how much engineering and innovation goes into a flat?), more and more 'stability' shoes start hitting the market.

So yea, there are some people that need support to run. There are others that don't and then there are others that think they do because they have to run long NOW. That's my thoughts.

I'm one...and more expensively engineered shoes have, actually, allowed me to become a sub-4 marathoner where 10 years ago I could barely walk.

I was in orthopedic shoes as a child--this is a lifelong (and congenital) issue for me.  Broad brush discussions on this topic are pretty amusing to me...the idea of my running barefoot the way my left foot is built is laughable.  And inexpensive neutral platform running shoes (by reputable makers) undermined the treatment I was getting and led to increasing pain with increasing miles.  I don't buy expensive shoes because someone talked me into it (well, my podiatrist...a marathoner...did, but not a salesperson) or because I want plush cushioning.  I buy them because I don't like the pain that results from shoes that don't support the work my orthotics are doing to allow me to not just run, but walk, pain free.

Not being a Kenyan or a South African, I don't have any expectations of spending much time running in the habitat in which H. sapiens originally evolved the anatomical structures to run barefoot...I have to run my marathons on city streets.