HELP!! Buying New Running Shoes!

When I started, I bought cheap shoes. My legs and feet regretted the decision immensely. A few months later I found a specialty running store and went to get a gait assessment and some help finding the right type of shoe. I've never looked back. It's SO WORTH IT! They assessed the gait, measured and took into consideration how wide my toes and heel are and where I land my stride, and of course considered my comfort and personal preferences.

I personally wear Brooks Ghost 7s now. Out of sheer curiosity after having had the assessment and bought the shoes--and they let me try on almost everything in the store which would suit my gait--I checked online at the Brooks site to see if the 7s were recommended based on my answers to their quiz. I was happily surprised to find that they were the #1 option for me on that site, and pleased that my store had found the right shoe for me. (Note: they were not the most expensive option.)

Long story short: take the drive, pay a few extra dollars. You will not regret doing so.

This guy is into ultra marathons, and does reviews on shoes...as well as everything else running.
http://fellrnr.com/wiki/Shoes
I love that he cuts shoes in half to shoe you what they are made of.
Also if you click on the price in the review it will take you to a site that looks for the cheapest prices for that item on the web.

fbinsc wrote: »

You could buy online from a site like zappos that has free no question returns, using the runners world guide to help choose. Although you got a ton of replies saying go to a running store I'd bet most runners have never gotten a gait analysis done. I know I haven't.

You're probably right re: most people not bothering and there are also some relatively sophisticated online tools such as this one:

myprecisionfit.com/test/welcome?lang=en_GB&noAnswerSelected=true&noMobile=#

That said it seems like a bit of a false economy of taking a punt on buying something online which a person is not sure about and then returning them until they find the right pair (even if they were confident they knew what they were looking for to begin with) and then perhaps only discovering they aren't right a few runs down the line.

Given the amount of time a person will spend running in their shoes before they need being replaced a couple of hours to go to a store is dwarfed in comparison. Maybe it could be considered to be the first training run

You might be able to get help 11 miles away - see this Google map for some possible stores.

Yes you should definitely get some helpful advice from someone that can look at your feet, and your gait, in person. Best of all you can try different pairs and believe me that can make a huge difference.

Take your old shoes with you.