Be Careful Out There (Buying Shoes)

Yesterday I was looking through the ads in the Sunday paper and my attention was drawn to a Mervyns ad. On the front of their glossy 36-page flyer were photos of Nike women’s Air Alvord, the new women’s Air Dual D, and the men’s Air Run Dual D. Nike what? Who has heard of these shoes? They’re Nike’s sales effort aimed at department stores. They may be good shoes but I wouldn’t buy them for running. In fact, they are not even on Nike’s web site for running shoes!
     While most athletes are careful and know enough to buy running shoes at a running store, many more people are not. Pity the beginning runner, who buys shoes without the quality help from a qualified salesperson. They’ll get no help with fit. Important things like foot type, toe box space, arch support, heel counter grip, to say nothing of shoe type—motion control, cushioning, and so on. No help finding the right shoes for whatever they plan to run and no information about the shoe’s life expectancy.
     They take their shoes home, lace them up and start running. A percentage of them will still be going a year later. But, I’d bet, many more will have quit because their feet hurt, or after wearing the shoes down—and not knowing when to get new ones, they got injured—and quit.
     If you know someone who is starting to run, or even walk, take a moment and share a bit of your experience on buying good footwear. Here’s a link an article I wrote about Fit. Many shoe companies make mid-range or even cheap shoes and I for one, don’t want them having a negative influence on people wanting to get out and exercise. We all have to be careful out there.