tOfficial Running Shoe Thread

been a bit of clamoring for a Master thread so I'm making one and hoping it will get sticked by the mods.

First 2 rules on shoes:

1: Go get fitted. Have somebody actually watch you run, figure out your gait, pronation, cadence, etc. and recommend shoes. They may be wrong and not get the right shoe initially. But I promise that most running shoe stores are going to have a better idea of what works for you than an hourly employee at Dicks or Academy (meant with no offense to them.)

2. One size does not fit all. Some people swear by Brooks, New Balance, Mizuno, HOKA, OnCloud, Altra, Nike, Adidas, etc. They can't all be wrong and they can't all be right. I personally hate Nike. Nothing to do with their politics or anything, but I just haven't loved running in any of their shoes. However, Galen Rupp rocks them and quite a few world class athletes run in them, so there's something there. Take recommendations from others with a grain of salt. They may say HOKA is the only shoe that they'll ever wear again... but you may try HOKA and not like the feel of it. I did not. Doesn't make them wrong, just didn't work for you


Some basics about how the foot works running.


Pronation

Pronation is how your foot rolls when you run. If it gets severe and you don't correct it, you can damage your foot pretty badly.



Something I would recommend is try to fix your pronation through exercise and correcting your running form.

LINK
LINK


Shoes can help with this as well. My wife is a severe overpronator. She's ran in Nikes, Reeboks and Asics and they all didn't correct her pronation. I tried every stability shoe I could find including Mizuno, Brooks, NB, etc. Turns out she loved a $30 pair of Sauconys made for overpronation and voila they're her favorite shoe when we got some custom arches.

Overpronation Shoes
RunnerClick
Runner's World

Underpronation/Supination Shoes
RunnerClick
ShoeKicker




Heel Drop

Heel drop is not a big deal for me. I've never worn a shoe and had an issue with the heel drop. In fact when i've tried Altra or HOKAs with 0mm heel drop i didn't love it, but some swear by it. It just depends on your foot and running style. The idea of a lower heel drop is that your foot is flush and there's no bouncing in the shoe when you strike the ground.



Altra is famous for their 0mm Heel Drop. It's a thing, just not my thing.

Some other things to consider

Cushion
Every brand has their different science behind what they do with their cushion. NB has fresh foam, Brooks has DNA, Adidas has boost, etc. I'm a heavy pavement pounder, so i like a lot of cushion in my shoes (mainly if i'm going long distance) but when you get a heavily cushioned shoe, you are going to lose some response. Meaning you're absorbing the step, and not springing yourself forward as much. Unless you're getting into 5ks and races a lot, probably not a big deal, but a lot of minimalists like the lower heel drop with a better response from the ground.

Arches/Inserts
Most shoes are made with a neutral runner in mind. Almost every shoe I own came with the same interchangeable $.25 piece of foam. For the most part, there's not a lot of technology in there differentiating themselves. A lot of pronation issues can be addressed with inserts. Academy and Dicks have dozen of them to play with and they're fairly well labeled as to their purposes, however, if you want to address any of the pronation or heel drop issues, go to a local shoe store that specializes in inserts. A lot of the time they can look at your pronation, see what you're doing, give a recommendation on a shoe and insert and then will cut the inserts to fit. There are also inserts that aren't addressing anything, just adding cusion, response, etc. I've rarely found a need to replace, but it's worth looking at.

Trail shoes
Most often, your road shoes are fine to wear on trails. Unless you plan on getting into it heavily, you don't have to go out and buy a pair for running trails. If your trails consist of nice dirt/rock paths, then your normal shoes are probably fine.

When I got more heavily involved in trails, i found my grip was pretty poor and I slipped more than I'm proud to admit. First pair of trail shoes were $40 NBs and I noticed a marked difference. I do a lot of mud running and hill climbing and the pronounced lugs do make a big difference out there. Today, I have 2 pairs of trails shoes, but probably 20-30% of my runs are on trails. All that being said, buy road shoes for road runs, and trail shoes for trail runs. A lot of trail shoes are made to offer extra support and grip and the grips wear down on pavement.


That list of things can grow, just a starting point.

On to the shoes themselves. I'm going to list some of the shoes I see out in the running world most often. This is by no means all of the best shoes in the world, but they are shoes that are common in the running community. If you're wanting to try something new or looking at getting started running more, this is a good list to start with.


HOKA One One Clifton
Saucony Kinvara
Mizuno WaveRider
Brooks Ghosts
Brooks Adrenaline GTS
OnCloud Flow
Altra Torin
Altra Escalante
Adidas UltraBoost
New Balance 1080
Asics Gel Kayano
Asics GT 2000
Newton Distance
Skechers GoRun 7

When reading reviews, there's tons of great sites out there and you can buy from most. Buy local if you can though.

Online reviews and deals
RunRepeat aggregate ranking site. Sometimes the responses are from amateurs, but it pulls a lot of them together and gives reviews from the average runner.
Running Shoes Guru More extensive reviews
ShoeKicker A good site that will search the web for best prices on shoes that you're looking at.
Running WareHouse
Steep and Cheap has some great deals from time to time.
SoleReview


SEC country running shops:
Louisiana Running + Walking Co. NOLA FleetFeet
Luke's Locker -DFW
Rush Running - Bentonville, AR
Varsity Running - LA

Some review sites/blogs to follow:
Ginger Runner
Natural Running Center (for hippies only)


There are much smarter people than me and better runners out there, but i wanted to get a post that can maybe be stickied where people are looking to change things up or get more into running.