The right shoes for your feet
Your gender, your weight, the type of terrain you run on, your pronation and the shape of your foot arch: these are the five main criteria when choosing the right shoes. Discover why these parameters are crucial to helping you find the ideal running partner. Bear in mind that nothing can replace advice from a specialist salesperson in the shoe department of your local Intersport store!
Each type of run requires a special kind of shoe! Furthermore shoes are specifically designed for one type of terrain, one type of foot and one gender. To avoid fatigue, pains and injury, selecting a good pair of shoes is essential. You have to find the right balance between the cushioning, the support, the weight and the responsiveness of the shoe. Here is an overview of the types of shoes and runners which will fit them.
Supination, pronation and neutral feet/strong
The major sports brands design shoes which ensure good communication between the ground and the feet. To obtain the right frequency, you must choose shoes that are made for your feet and your type of sports activity. By the term, ‘made for your feet’, we understand that it’s a shoe that will place your feet in a balanced position, whatever their type: supination, neutral or pronation. Pronation is a natural phenomenon, a movement of the foot which enables impact to be absorbed with every step, every stride. However, according to its intensity, it generates various ways of walking and running. In this way, the three types of feet will lead you to different types of shoes, to develop an efficient stride. Foot pronation requires stable shoes for good support, neutral feet can fit into neutral or stable shoes and supination requires the best possible cushioning. You have to find out what foot type you have before purchasing your shoe. View the article "The three main foot profiles" to help you determine your foot type.
Cushioning, stability and support
Depending on the shape of your foot arch you won’t need the same shoe type: flat, normal or high. All running shoes provide a mixture of cushioning, stability and support. However, these three characteristics will be more or less pronounced according to your foot type, in order to meet your needs as closely as possible.
Cushioning: From a supinator to a light pronator, with a high foot arch, you need good cushioning to compensate for your pronation. Generally speaking, feet with high arches require good cushioning as they’re fairly rigid and hence don’t sufficiently absorb the impact caused by the foot’s contact with the ground. As such they need good cushioning to compensate for this stiffness, but little stability as the foot is sufficiently stable. A cushioned shoe is flexible around the arch to allow the foot as much freedom of movement as possible. Quite often, shoes with substantial cushioning don’t contain additional stability and are generally pretty light. That’s why they also suit runners who are looking for really lightweight shoes or those who are keen to pick up the pace. In this way several brands offer lightweight models designed for speed.
Stability: ‘Normal’ foot arches require stable running shoes. If you are a dynamic runner who pronates slightly more than usual and has a normal arch, you require a blend of stability and cushioning. Your foot adopts a neutral position or slight pronator position with each stride using the body’s natural pronation to absorb the impact. Your shoe needs to limit your pronation via a dual density midsole and must be rigid through the arch. To know if it is rigid enough, try bending the shoe in two: if it flexes easily, try another model.
Support: the maximum support is required for runners with flat feet and a pronounced pronation. A severe pronation is marked by an overly flexible foot arch, which rolls inwards excessively with each stride. The impact is transferred to the knee and hip area. Your pair of shoes must provide good support, with firm intermediary soles with dual density to control your pronation and limit the inward rotation of your foot. They also suit runners who are looking for better support and don’t wish to best speed records, as well as people who are overweight.
Websites for the major brands, like Nike or Adidas, enable you to quickly find the shoe which suits you: select your gender, your terrain type, your type of foot and arch. A selection of appropriate models will automatically come up!
Men/women
It is now recognized that men and women have slightly different physiological processes. Women generally have a different running stride to that of men. It is also proven that women’s hormone cycles influence the height of their foot arch. That is why most of the brands develop specific models for women, with adaptations which enable the best possible technology to be incorporated, with special focus on a larger space at the midfoot level to adapt well to these variations in height. This is the case with Asics, which offers a gender-specific Space Trusstic (plastic arch below the foot arch): wider than usual it enables a more effective and comfortable movement of the midfoot throughout the roll of the foot and thus improves the comfort and performance of female athletes!
Excessive weight and foot width
Your joints withstand the force of several times your weight with every stride. This is why you need extra support if you want to run and you’re overweight, so as to protect your joints and avoid injury. The width of the shoes can also have an impact on comfort: New Balance was the first brand of sports shoe to offer the majority of its shoe models in multiple widths, from the narrowest (2A) to the widest (6E). In general, the standard size for men is "D" and “B” for women. If you’ve never felt at ease in these standard sizes, you’ll at last be able to find the width which suits you!
Trail or asphalt?
Are you going to run throughout the winter? Do you only run in the depths of the countryside and prefer muddy, stony tracks to tarmac? Then you have to choose shoes dedicated to trail running! They are designed to meet the needs of runners who prefer to go off-roading. Most of the brands have honed a reasonable number of trail models, so you can find one which suits your foot. Trail running shoes are generally a bit heavier than urban shoes, and may be more likely to incorporate waterproof materials such as GoreTex in order to protect you from moisture whatever the weather conditions! Their soles are designed to provide greater support and grip on slippery or rocky terrain and their structure provides greater stability for optimum control of the foot movement, enabling the runner to feel protected whatever the terrain. To provide greater support, the outsole is thicker and more rugged than most urban training shoes. On most trail shoes, the outsole wraps around the front of the toes to protect them from bumps and other rough patches. Their structure provides more support and stability for the best movement possible, in order for the runner to be at ease whatever the terrain.
Ultimately, whatever shoe you choose, it has to fit you like a glove and become a natural extension of your foot. Let’s hope this bit of advice enables you to choose the ideal running partner!
