Trends are not for training on

How to buy shoes in our commercially-drenched society

What a pile of shoes! My original pair are those dirty ones off to the left. My current ones are the dirty ones at the bottom of the pile, sort of in the center.

I bought 7 pairs of the Mizuno Wave Rebellion Pro shoes this year. 

After my long shoe journey, I have no desire to go searching around for shoes again. I spaced the purchases out along the household budget, but still: 7 pairs. That sounds crazy, right? But that shoe journey was frustrating, made me risk injuries, and required an abysmal number of administrative tasks. To avoid all this, I try to buy as many of the same model of shoe as I possibly can, once I find one I like.

Consider the sunk cost that is seeking out running shoes. I change my shoes about every 4-6 months, which is a more frequent change than most runners, but it’s helped me avoid injury all these years. In fact, changing your shoes is one of the very first pieces of advice I give to anyone who asks me questions about running. Pounding out miles on shoes that are no longer performing is a recipe for disaster, either sharp and painful or slow and grinding. You want to change your shoes. But the constant production of new and “improved” shoe models actually deter people from taking this very important preventative measure. The “improvements” are never guaranteed to actually work for you, and if they don’t, you’re in for frustration. Changing my shoes every 4-6 months means that: 

1. To minimize my down time, I need to start exploring new shoe options about every three months. 

2. I need to budget time to research what shoe companies are up to, which is as dull as reading the fine print on my driver’s license. 

3. I need to order shoes and try them on, because trying to find shoes you like in a store setting is a shot in the dark.  

4. I need to figure out each company’s return policies. 

5. I need to return the shoes I don’t like, aka, all of them except one pair. 

6. I then wait for refunds to register on my credit card, which, as we know, is no small financial endeavor. 

In today’s market, shoe company changes their models every six months, tweaking-aka-improving them whether the model that’s already out was popular with runners or not. That in itself seems weird, and it seems to make runners angry and sad.

Legitimately how I feel trying to coordinate my running shoe try-ons.

Why do they do this? I honestly don’t know. But my suspicion is that shoe companies design their shoes along the ever-increasing timeline of trends, rather than with the good of the runner in mind, which is a business practice I sincerely loathe.  

So I’m not kidding when I say that when you find a shoe you like, buy a bunch of pairs. Stack your year up with shoes so you don’t have to think about it. Because your running practice isn’t about keeping up with trends or experimentation; it’s not about scrolling through the comments on review blogs or company sites, and it’s certainly not about changing your gait, pace, or training regime to fit in with the latest concepts in gear. 

Companies want and need you to engage with their product lines. They need you to feel like if you buy the next model that they tweaked in just the right way, that you’ll fill that weakness in your practice that’s always kept you back. 

That is bullshit, friends, and it’s a waste of your time. 

I know how hard you work to carve out time to run. Right now, in every corner of the world, there are people maintaining strict training regimes for upcoming, long-dreamt-of marathons and ultras. Others are fitting in nighttime runs after soothing our 3 year olds through evening monster fears. Still others of us light out of work to slam through miles between meetings or on lunch breaks. All of these efforts are laudable, and none of them should require scrolling on a shoe company site or watching a review from a guy who ran once or twice in shoes he got for free.  

So change your shoes; you don’t want to get injured. But when you find one you like, buy as many as you’re comfortable with buying. Your time is more valuable than shoe companies want you to believe. 

Go run.