Purchasing a running shoe is an intensely personal experience. There are a lot of things to consider when buying running shoes. Things like how your ride will feel and stack height. Even how the upper portion of the shoe and how it feels on your foot.
This post is sponsored by adidas. All opinions and text are expressly my own.
5 Running Shoe Details You May Not Know About
1. Toe box. The toe box is the front of the shoe that contains your toes. Some toe boxes can be very wide while others can be very narrow. Your comfort level will be dictated by how your toes splay when you are standing. Some people who have a very wide toe splay need a wide toebox. Others who have very narrow, skinny feet need a narrower shoe. You’ll need to try on several pairs of shoes to determine what type of toebox works for you.
2. Stack height. The stack height will determine your ride. The taller the stack height, the more cushion between your foot and the ground. Some people prefer a very tall stack height and a lot of cushioning, while others prefer very little stack and cushioning. The stack height can also affect your stability on trails. This is something to consider if you wear a very cushioned shoe on roads, but you may be transitioning to trails. Pro tip: your shoes for the roads and the trails do not need to be the same (and most often times are not).
3. Drop. Before we get to roads or trails, let’s talk about the drop. The drop of a shoe is the differential between the heel and the toe. For example, a very high drop shoe would be about 12 mm. That means there’s a 12 mm difference between the height of the heel and the height of the toe. A low drop shoe would be something like 3 mm or less. Some people really like wearing zero drop shoes. And some people really like the higher drop of the 10 to 12 mm. Also, stack height and drop are independent of each other. You can have a high stack shoe with a zero drop, or a low stack shoe with a very noticeable drop. Again, this is something that you will need to try and feel for yourself.
4. Trails or roads. Picking a running shoe is important to the terrain that you will be using it on most. So you don’t want to buy a trail runner if you’re going to be running mostly roads and vice versa. The exception to this rule is when you are running in the winter. It is very helpful to have an aggressively treaded trail shoe to run through snow, slush, and even on ice. But before you purchase your shoe, ask yourself where you will be using it most and then you can make an informed decision from there.
5. Racing or training. Another important thing to ask yourself is are you going to be using this as an everyday trainer or are you looking for a racing shoe? A racing shoe is usually very minimal drop and very minimal cushion. Of course there are the carbon plated, super shoes that sometimes have a lot of cushion and stack height. These are all things that you want to consider and test out.
