What are the most DURABLE RUNNING SHOES you have ever had?

As close as I can figure, I have about 750 miles on a pair of brooks st2 racers as of now, and they show no signs of wearing beyond some fraying in the upper.

Trainer's Asics Alliance (one down from Epirus) - all of indoor/outdoor in it..

Flats - trained an entire summer in Terra T/C's and another in American Eagle's..

apparently a good number of the posters on this site's feet do not actually contact the ground while running!

seriously, you can not run 1000 (or even 500) miles on a pair of shoes and have the tread showing no wear even, unless maybe if you were running exclusively on extremely soft/non-abrasive surface.

Well some of the posters here are very light on their feet and weight very little. That's why I toss my shoes away when the upper has too many holes. No problems with midsoles- at all.

(BTW, my weight is 116lbs- male)

116? How tall?

jw wrote:

apparently a good number of the posters on this site's feet do not actually contact the ground while running!

seriously, you can not run 1000 (or even 500) miles on a pair of shoes and have the tread showing no wear even, unless maybe if you were running exclusively on extremely soft/non-abrasive surface.

Sure. There's always been wear on the soles of my shoes well before the 1,000 mile mark. But it doesn't affect their performance.

The most I've squeezed out of a retired pair of shoes was 1038 miles, in a pair of Nike Streak XCs. I usually get 550-650 miles out of that shoe before the upper starts to disintegrate, so that one pair must have been blessed by the shoe gods.

I have a pair of heavy old trainers that do snow duty during the winter. I bought them in January 2006, and they have, as of a couple of days ago, 1478 miles on them. They're starting to show their age, but so far I can still wear them.

I used to average ~ 400 miles in a pair of trainers. In flats, I tend to average a little higher - most often around 600. Other than the 1038 and 1478 (and counting) I reported above, the only other shoe I ever squeezed more than 700 miles was a pair of Nike Ekidens (back before the bastards at Nike killed that great shoe), with 740.

Todays shoes have only 500 or so miles on them, because the midsoles are designed that way. Before EVA and the like. shoes could go much longer, especially if you were very light and didn't wear out the outsole. The upper had to fall apart before it really mattered.

i have a pair of old Under Armour Proto Speed II Trainers. I've used them for football training, wrestling training,to running miles and miles and putting these shoes to the ultimate abuse! I still wear these shoes. The inside of the shoe broke and is still breaking but the outside is still taking the abuse. Ive had these shoes sence 2009 and I wear them almost everyday,

850 miles right now on my brooks pure flow.

here's an imgur link with 3 pics of them.

http://imgur.com/3SIFg8d,H4zQenF,FXrbd95

850 miles isn't anything absurd, but they aren't a minimal shoe so their durability impresses me. btw i am still wearing this shoe every week, but not every day.

When I was in college, I was able to put nearly 2000 miles on the Pegasus. I'd wear them until there were large patches of white midsole showing through the sole (and the white midsole inevitably wore super fast) or the upper had significant holes in it, whichever came first. Once I hit my mid-20s, I stopped being able to do that. Now I get the normal 300-500 depending on the shoe, and the shoes I wear today have way less midsole than the Pegasus. I don't think the mid-2000s Pegasus were all that more durable, I just think I was more invincible at that age.

I think footstrike matters a lot in this. I land on the outside of my midfoot. In doing so, I destroy the hard outsole within a couple hundred miles and before long I'm running on the white blown rubber of the midsole. The rest of the shoe looks fine. I may post a picture in case there are others like me.

Back when I was young and poor I put at least 1500 miles on a pair of Adidas Oregons. I had those things so taped up by the time I tossed them you woudn't know what brand they were - they were more athletic tape than shoe at that point!

I had a pair of Nike Free 3.0's with close to 1400 miles on them. If the upper wasn't completely ripped, I could have gotten a couple hundred more miles out of them.

I primarily use the Kinvara's and usually get around 1000 miles on them.

In the '80s I would regularly get 1200-2000 miles on each pair of Adidas Marathon Trainers. They were like strapping a piece of plywood to each foot, but I liked a firm shoe. I would periodically invest in a tube of shoe-goo to build up the sole as it wore. When the upper started to go, I would get a new pair, but that material wore like iron.

I ran a pair of Asics DS Racers 5 to the point where the entire profile at the bottom had disappeared and you could see the foam beneath.

I've also got a pair of DS Racers 9 which I won 4 years ago and that have got atleast 1000 miles in them...

I only wear them occasionally though by now..

I don't even wear true running shoes. Instead, Skechers Energy in the past. A year ago, I saw they had shape-ups for men. They're *my* best "running" shoe ever.

Skechers last me 2 *YEARS*, I don't get injured from them & they're cheap. Plus, they have the best front foot protection out there, which was why I first got them.

Years ago, I wore ASIC gels... 2010 I think. Good shoes, but my Skechers are much better for me. My current pair are 2.4 lbs (both shoes) on the scale. I speed work in them too. So you can imagine the difference when putting on a light racing shoe.

Least durable: I got a $95 pair of some NB... & they were "slippers in 3 days, causing me all kinds of temporary issues. NIKE's have felt bad to me too.

I don't even wear true running shoes. Instead, Skechers Energy in the past. A year ago, I saw they had shape-ups for men. They're *my* best "running" shoe ever.

Skechers last me 2 *YEARS*, I don't get injured from them & they're cheap. Plus, they have the best front foot protection out there, which was why I first got them.

Years ago, I wore ASIC gels... 2010 I think. Good shoes, but my Skechers are much better for me. My current pair are 2.4 lbs (both shoes) on the scale. I speed work in them too. So you can imagine the difference when putting on a light racing shoe.

Least durable: I got a $95 pair of some NB... & they were "slippers in 3 days, causing me all kinds of temporary issues. NIKE's have felt bad to me too.

I have about 1500 miles on my Altra Intuitions. I'm actually waiting for them to fall apart so I could by a new pair in another color, but the just won't die. The cushioning is still OK, the outsole is worn but not bad. The upper and the laces are starting to unravel at some places but are still holding together. Great durability.