PUBLISHED 02/12/2004
Since Runner's World's inception in 1966, the magazine has taken great pride in providing readers with authoritative reviews of running shoes, the most important gear any runner wears. Over the years, as materials, designs, and manufacturing technologies have improved, the making and selling of that gear has boomed into a highly competitive $4.5-billion industry. Not surprisingly, it's also become a more confusing place for consumers, with a dozen major manufacturers putting new shoes on the market every year. So in mid-2003, we set out to improve our quarterly shoe guides, as well as the testing program those guides were built around. Our ambition was to create the best shoe-testing program anywhere, and to do something no other magazine has ever done--combine subjective feedback from runners (a.k.a. "wear-testers") with objective mechanical tests we conduct ourselves.
Here's how we did it: First we founded the Runner's World Shoe Lab, an independent testing facility in East Lansing, Michigan. Here, running shoes are mechanically flexed, pounded, and prodded under the supervision of Ray Fredericksen, a biomechanist who has spent the past 15 years testing, researching, and developing shoes. Then we set up two new wear-tester programs--one through the Team Playmakers Running Club in East Lansing and another through the San Diego Track Club. This allows us to put shoes on the feet of some 360 runners who, like our readers, come in all sizes, shapes, ages, and levels of ability.
The goal of this new program is to help educate and inform readers so they can find the best shoes for them. Technology is so good these days that there are very few bad shoes, only shoes that are right or wrong for different types of runners, based on their size and weight, biomechanics, foot shape, and mileage.
Running shoes are generally divided into six categories: Stability, Cushioned, Motion-Control, Performance, Trail, and Racing. But within those categories, there is a fair amount of gray area between models. One stability shoe might be perfect for a 180-pound runner who has flat feet, is a moderate overpronator, and who runs 50 miles a week, but not right for a 120-pound runner who has a neutral gait, a high-arched foot, and who runs 25 miles per week. By combining mechanical-test data with more comprehensive feedback from our wear-testers, we will help readers navigate these gray areas, leaving only the last variable up to them: How a shoe fits. (To determine that, it's best to visit a running specialty retailer.)
