Getting Fitted for Shoes = Awesome Improvement!

DownsizingAaron

As I'm losing weight and improving my fitness, I'm continually trying to increase my walking speed and distance. After doing lots of reading on these forums, I finally broke down and took the advice.

I went to Yelp and found a local running shoe store (non-chain store) and went in to talk about my training progress, goals, and pains. Then they looked at my gait (how I walked and how my foot moves through the steps) and tried on shoes.

When it was all said and done, one shoe came out perfect for me: a Hoka One One Stinson Trail. You are probably saying: "what the heck is that?" I had never heard of them either but only a day later I'm already a believer!

With these new kicks I was able to take a whole minute per mile off my walking time and my foot and shin pain are completely gone! When I got done with my walk and took my shoes off I was shocked at how good they felt.

The shoes were not cheap and I had to take an hour and go out of my way to find the right shoe, but the difference is night and day for me and I'm mad at myself for not doing it sooner. If you are in a similar situation, go get fitted ASAP!

lepanto

Thanks for sharing! You have some very good points here, hopefully this will help some people out! Shoes can make all the difference and having professional help is beneficial, especially if you have feet, shin, knee, and/or hip issues!

SugarLou57

Wow, awesome tip, thanks.

970Mikaela1

I keep meaning to do this but alas...I haven't yet. Thanks for the little push. So glad to hear it makes that big of a difference for you. Hope it will for me as well.

wannabpiper

Did the same thing last year and had a similarly awesome experience. Glad you got on board and are happy with your new shoes.

diana5066

I did the same thing a month ago at the Running Room and am just as happy that I did it. I took the 2 pairs of shoes in that I was using and explained why I thought they didn't work.. I had picked them out myself. Then they measure, check my walk/run and actually asked questions and listened. We tried a few shoes and I love the ones that I have. I normally would't have bought them myself because of the colour. That is how a bought in the past. They even said as long as I only used them on the treadmill and not outside, I could return them up to 30 days. Not returning them... I love them !

kiwitechgirl

So true - I got new running shoes a couple of months back and it's like night and day. Best thing I've done in ages.

DownsizingAaron

I forgot to mention that the store I went to offered the free exchange option for me too. It's really nice to know when spending so much on the shoes that they'd give me assurance they worked well for me. As I continue to improve in my training and lose more weight, my shoe size or even shoe type may change and I'll be back there again for sure.

I did the same thing a month ago at the Running Room and am just as happy that I did it. I took the 2 pairs of shoes in that I was using and explained why I thought they didn't work.. I had picked them out myself. Then they measure, check my walk/run and actually asked questions and listened. We tried a few shoes and I love the ones that I have. I normally would't have bought them myself because of the colour. That is how a bought in the past. They even said as long as I only used them on the treadmill and not outside, I could return them up to 30 days. Not returning them... I love them !

Nikiki

thanks for the reminder that I NEED to do this too!!

I went to a chain store once that offered this service and wasn't happy with the result, I got the feeling the salesperson really didnt know what they were talking about and the shoe that was recommended just happened to be the newest shoe they just got in so I felt like it was just their goal to sell as many of that shoe as possible... I need to research non-chain stores...

brianpperkins

At a recent 10k, one of my local running stores handed out coupons for a free tech t-shirt just for stopping by and talking about shoe needs. They realize if you get in the door, they can demonstrate the difference between individual attention and the buying experience we all know from chain stores.