Running Shoes: Less Is More

It’s hard to tell if the recent spate of stories about the benefits of running with less supportive shoes, or with no shoes at all, is the result of a marketing campaign for Nike’s new “Free” running shoe, or if, as Nike would like us to believe, its running shoe is the result of the new thinking about running that is explained in the stories. Whatever. The stories, like this one in the New York Times, report on the revelation that more supportive, and expensive, running shoes have done nothing to reduce injuries to runners who wear them. And on the seemingly obvious consideration that perhaps we should not expect $199 sneakers to do the work that our feet were designed to do.
The story quotes  Jeff Pisciotta, the senior researcher at the Nike Sports Research
Lab in Beaverton, Ore., who headed the Nike Free project saying: “We found pockets of people all over the globe who are still running
barefoot, and what you find is that during propulsion and landing they
have far more range of motion in the foot and engage more of the toe.  Their feet
flex, spread, splay and grip the surface, meaning you have less
pronation” – twisting of the foot – “and more distribution of pressure.”
The Times reports that Nike tested the theory by having a group of students at the German
Sports University in Cologne run warm-ups for six months in the Frees.
These students showed a significant increase in foot strength and
flexibility compared with those who ran in their regular shoes, Mr.
Pisciotta said. Presumably, he said, “a stronger, healthier foot means
less chance of injury.”  Worth reading.