I know I have mentioned this before but you are wasting your money on fancy designer brand name running shoes and yet another research study has proved this.  I have suspected that you have been paying for nothing more than a name for many years. Now an article in the British Journal of Sports Medicine called “Do you get value for money when you buy an expensive pair of running shoes?”  has confirmed those suspicions for me.

Research has shown that you don't have to spend a big bundle of money to get good runners. Christian Nordquist, the author of the article discusses a research study where nine separate brands of running shoes were tested to see which was the best brand for the money.  They tested the shoes for durability and also in terms of being anatomically good for the fit by measuring how much pressure was put on the balls of the feet when they were worn.  

I was not surprised to find out that researchers found that there were no significant differences in plantar pressure between different brands and there were no major differences between the expensive and cheaper shoes.   The pressure was measured by sensors planted on the soles of the feet of 43 different people who were wearing the shoes to test them for durability and other factors.  It seems that even a shoe that was designed to be really sophisticated and good for your foot was not really that different from the 39 dollar running shoe in the first place. 

As many people have always suspected, you may be paying for brand name and status rather than performance when paying for a pricey pair of cross trainers. However even though we now know this there are some truths when it comes to buying quality running shoes. For one thing there are definitely some shoes out there that are knock offs and are made out of cardboard. You should still look for durable comfortable shoes that are made out of a long lasting material and that have a molded sole so that you do not damage your arch when you wear them. You should also look for running shoes with thick soles with the appropriate treads for what you are planning to do while wearing them. For instance you may not need a really thick sole if you are just walking in them but you might need it thicker if you are hiking through the woods in them. 

The hardest thing I find is talking my kids out of wanting some name brand running shoe they have seen on television. Sometimes they will settle for a knock off of a more expensive brand and sometimes not. It depends on your kid. Usually it is a less expensive designer brand that they will settle for rather than the purchase of the imitations. This is because kids at school nowadays are really good at spotting 'fakes!'