Considerations when buying shoes

Buying shoes can be a daunting task, running shoes have become very expensive and to choose a pair to only hate them is both expensive and frustrating.  There are a lot of things to consider when buying shoes.  Your personal height and weight, which impacts the necessary structure of the shoe.  Heal and forefoot cushioning, this is where you may land each stride.  Stiffness and flexibility of the shoe and pronation stability is so important.   All of these factor impact your running stride as well as how you wear out your shoes.

Thing about foot size and width is so important, which correlates with your height and weight.  Some things to consider is shoe buying at the end of the day when you have the greatest amount of water retention in your feet.  Also, making sure you choose a shoe that is allowing your foot box to lie flat without pinching inside the foot.  Lastly, make sure you have room at the tip of your shoe that is about the size of the top of your thumb.  This usually means buying a half size bigger.

Your heels should not slip when walking.  Your heal should be secure with the laces threaded but not tied.  Also, be aware of shoes where the heels ride higher onto the Achilles's tendon.  Make sure that the heel scoops downward and pads the Achilles's.   The forefoot should be contoured to your foot and give a natural support.  This will help not only with comfort but with decreases the calluses that appear on the ball of your foot. 

Stiffness and flexibility of your shoes are also important.  The stiffness is the structure around the top of your foot.  People with exceptional wide feet will often blow out the sides of their shoe, decreasing the support.  This leads back to proper fit.  When doing the flexibility test take the shoe, pressing the shoe at the toe and bend the heel forward so the shoe is bent in half.  Your foot should flex at the same point.  This will keep your Achilles, arch and calf pain at bay.  Also, this will help prevent plantar fasciitis. 

Lastly, you should look for a shoe specific to your pronation.  This is where you land at your foot strike. Think of this portion of your running as the shock absorbers like in your car.  So without proper support you can create a chain reaction of issues from ankles, to knee, up into your back and neck.  There are three common types, normal, overpronation and underpronation.  Normal is when your foot strike lands and rolls slightly inward.  Underpronation is when a person land outside of the heel making contact, then rolling forward.  This forces impact to concentrate to the smaller part of yoru foot and the outside of the little toe.  Where overpronation is the opposite.  Heel strike to rolling inward, using your big and second toe to push off of.  Pronation is a large topic and will be looked at again in other blogs, however, for now it is important that you have someone video your running strides so that you can accurately know how your foot will ultimately strike the ground. 

Suggestions, try on your shoes.  Go to a store where the sale people are actually sneakerolgist, (real thing, sort of).  Sales people who are trained to watch your running gate on a treadmill to give you a good recommendation for a shoe that is best for you.  Try to stay away from buying sneakers from department stores.  They may look the same but they are actually not the same shoe.  The material used to construct the shoe is made from lesser quality material forcing you to buy shoes more often and do a number on your feet.  
And don't by for look, color, or tread.  It is more important that your feet are happy then if they match your LuLu's.  

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