There is zip. Nada. No evidence that what your local running shoe store tells you to wear (based on your foot type or biomechanics), is right for you. It's all hogwash. Propapanda spewed by shoe companies, with no evidence to back it up.So what DO you wear? Only YOUR body knows, and it could be something completely opposite of what the shoe store guy tells ya. Or your body could change over time such that your needs change too.
http://bjsm.bmj.com/cgi/content/short/43/3/159
Is your prescription of distance running shoes evidence-based?
C E Richards1,2, P J Magin1, R Callister2
1 Discipline of General Practice, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle, Australia
2 School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Newcastle, Australia
Correspondence to:
Dr C Richards, Discipline of General Practice, Bowman Building, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle, University Drive, Callaghan 2308, Australia;
craig.richards@newcastle.edu.auObjectives: To determine whether the current practice of prescribing distance running shoes featuring elevated cushioned heels and pronation control systems tailored to the individual’s foot type is evidence-based.
Data sources: MEDLINE (1950–May 2007), CINAHL (1982–May 2007), EMBASE (1980–May 2007), PsychInfo (1806–May 2007), Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (2nd Quarter 2007), Cochrane Central Register of Controlled trials (2nd Quarter 2007), SPORTSDiscus (1985–May 2007) and AMED (1985–May 2007).
Review methods: English language articles were identified via keyword and medical subject headings (MeSH) searches of the above electronic databases. With these searches and the subsequent review process, controlled trials or systematic reviews were sought in which the study population included adult recreational or competitive distance runners, the exposure was distance running, the intervention evaluated was a running shoe with an elevated cushioned heel and pronation control systems individualised to the wearer’s foot type, and the outcome measures included either running injury rates, distance running performance, osteoarthritis risk, physical activity levels, or overall health and wellbeing. The quality of these studies and their findings were then evaluated.
Results: No original research that met the study criteria was identified either directly or via the findings of the six systematic reviews identified.
Conclusion: The prescription of this shoe type to distance runners is not evidence-based.