Periodically when I get bored and need a break from what I am doing I often do one of several things. I could go over to amazon.com and read the 1-star reviews on books (it can be quite funny, especially if the book has it fan boys and seeing them attack the 1-star reviews with […]
Archive | Running Shoes
Relfections from the ISB Footwear Biomechanics Meeting
Recently the Footwear Biomechanics Group of the International Society of Biomechanics had its conference on the Gold Coast in Australia. I did my best to live post things as it happened but did get a bit bogged down. I did a previous post on some of the gems from the same meeting in Liverpool in […]
Throwback Thursday: No, expensive running shoes do not lead to 123% increase in injuries
Well, its really only Tuesday, but I did start writing this on a Thursday. In my alerts a while back, there was an exchange between Robbins and the authors on this study. I may or may not weigh in on that debate later, but a comment by Robbins caught my eye: Marti reported that runners […]
RCT of traditional running shoes vs minimalist running shoes
Several previous prospective randomized studies have looked at injury rates between those using the traditional running shoes and barefoot/minimalist running shoes. I reviewed two here and here and did not review this one. I won’t relitigate the issues surrounding the claims regarding injury rates as I commented on that in those posts. However, the conclusions […]
Bending Stiffness of Running Shoes and Running Energetics
Hot on the heels of my last post on the running shoes for the sub-2hr marathon we now have a study that looks at running energetics and the bending stiffness of the shoe. I don’t want to re-litigate all the issues surrounding running shoes and running economy, so they can be read here for background. […]
The running shoe for the sub-2 hr marathon
I previously blogged about the wishful thinking fallacy, pseudoscience and quackery claim that the first sub 2 hour marathon will be run barefoot 2 years ago and nothing since then has convinced me to change my mind. If anything, the opposite has been the case. My belief is that the running shoe that is used […]
Search Engine Popularity of Different Running Shoes Brands
Its that time of the year again. I did this in December 2013,2014 and 2015. These figures are the estimated Google search volume per month for the last 12 months for each brand appended with the words ‘running shoes’. Please read the disclaimer below. As with the 2013 and 2014 posts, there are some disclaimers: […]
Search Engine Popularity of Running Shoes: 2015 Update
It that time of the year where I use the Google keyword tool to look at the popularity of different Google searches for different running shoes. Previous years here and here. *See comment re Hoka’s in comments below As with previous years, there are disclaimers: The numbers represent the estimated number of times that the […]
Running Shoe Counts
Each year Lava Magazine has been publishing the running shoe counts from “Kona”, the Ironman in Hawaii. They just published the 2015 data from David Jewel at Shoe Ranger of the shoes worn in the marathon leg. I have been putting into table form their data from over the years: Just a couple of notes: […]
The effect of ‘energy boost’ footwear on running economy
The energy boost running shoes from Adidas came to the market a few years ago to mixed commentary. Adidas were cautious what they claimed about the shoe, but bench testing did show the the material did provide a better ‘energy return’ than a typical running shoe material. Did that translate to better running economy? At […]
The Minimalist Index for running shoes
One of the problems with running shoe research is that different running shoe manufacturers use a different set of design features to try and achieve the same effect. For example, there are a number of different design features that could be considered attempts at ‘motion control’. If a study uses a shoe with one of […]
Motion control running shoes do affect the running injury rate
Earlier today I summed up some of the key papers and discussions at the Footwear Biomechanics symposium in Liverpool (here). In that summary I did promise more on this study as it has the potential to put a real spanner in the works, especially in the context of the continued rhetoric and propaganda that we […]
Selecting the right running shoe based on brain activity
How cool would that be? How feasible and practical it will become is another question, but that is exactly what these authors below proposed. They stated: When consumers purchase shoes, they often try on a few pairs and make a selection; that selection may indeed be instinctive, but such a purchase may not always be […]
Arch height and running shoe prescribing …all is not as it seems?
The prevailing paradigm for a long time for the prescription of running shoes was based on concepts like the amount of “pronation”, the related issue of arch height and foot print analysis. The accumulated evidence, despite the widespread nonsensical writing about “overpronation” (and fueled by a healthy dose of the Dunning-Kruger effect) pointed to this approach […]
Popularity of Running Shoe Brands Based on Google Search Volume
A year ago, I was bored and used a Google tool to get an estimate of the search volume for the different running shoe brands and posted the results. I decided to update it. Here is the December 2014 estimated monthly search volumes (along with 2013’s): As with the 2013 post, there are some disclaimers: […]