How are we supposed to afford shoes???

Become friends with those who work at your local run store.

I buy 3 - 6 pairs at a time and get a pretty good discount.

Be thankful you don’t do triathlon....I’ll take 1000$ a year on shoes any day of the week then that horrible tri habit I had years ago.

Plus just buy last years model of shoes for like half that price on eBay or outlets.

I'm sort of in that boat (I don't average 100 but I get up there by the middle of a buildup). I would recommend getting older models or even slightly used shoes on ebay. Also you can get 700+ miles on shoes if you really want.

As far as hobbies go, running is pretty cheap. In increasing order:

1. Running

2. Cycling

3. Triathlon

4. Hunting

5. Fishing (if you have a boat)

6. Horses

7. Auto racing

8. Flying

Companies are trying to make money. They target people who spend.

+1

Now the typical price is up to $130-150 for a pair. Nope. Not gonna do it. Ever. I find lesser shoes on sale and will learn to run in freaking sandals before I'll pay for the latest and greatest.

Meanwhile, the shoe manufacturers are paying nickels to Asian slaves to make those shoes and enriching themselves and their favored politicians with their ill-gotten gains. Unbridled capitalism. Gotta love it!

If $1000/yr is too much for you to spend on something your willing to dedicate the time to do 100mpw then re-evaluating priorities should be in order. If you could run 15hrs/wk but don't have enough money for shoes, then maybe run less and work more.

Big Brand Name Shoe Companies need work better with China on setting up their contract manufacturing operations to incorporate more Uyghurs for slave labor and dump more benzene containing adhesive solvent into the environment. "After all, we're all in this together!" (tm).

WhyRegisterHere? wrote:

+1

Now the typical price is up to $130-150 for a pair. Nope. Not gonna do it. Ever. I find lesser shoes on sale and will learn to run in freaking sandals before I'll pay for the latest and greatest.

Meanwhile, the shoe manufacturers are paying nickels to Asian slaves to make those shoes and enriching themselves and their favored politicians with their ill-gotten gains. Unbridled capitalism. Gotta love it!

I do love capitalism, without it, I probably wouldn't even have shoes to run in.

SuicidePace wrote:

If $1000/yr is too much for you to spend on something your willing to dedicate the time to do 100mpw then re-evaluating priorities should be in order. If you could run 15hrs/wk but don't have enough money for shoes, then maybe run less and work more.

It's a large expense and it would be nice if I could find a way to lower it.

If you are averaging 100 mpw, running is clearly a hobby that you take very seriously. $1,000/yr doesn't seem like much money to spend on a hobby you take very seriously.

How much is your time worth? You're spending at least 600 hours per year running. Even if you only value your time at $10/hr, you're still "spending" $6,000+ in opportunity cost on the hobby. The cost of shoes is pretty minor compared to the total implicit and explicit cost you are taking on.

Apparently shoes didn't exist before capitalism. Capitalism is a beast that must be aggressively bridled through regulation and even more aggressive taxation. $150 shoes that cost, what, maybe $10 per pair to my door, is a travesty, considering that the corporations who use essential slaves to make them pay next to no taxes on their profits. You OK with such a system? I'm not.

UmbrellaMan wrote:

WhyRegisterHere? wrote:

+1

Now the typical price is up to $130-150 for a pair. Nope. Not gonna do it. Ever. I find lesser shoes on sale and will learn to run in freaking sandals before I'll pay for the latest and greatest.

Meanwhile, the shoe manufacturers are paying nickels to Asian slaves to make those shoes and enriching themselves and their favored politicians with their ill-gotten gains. Unbridled capitalism. Gotta love it!

I do love capitalism, without it, I probably wouldn't even have shoes to run in.

For the past 365 days, I ran 4,235 miles. In that same 365 days, I spent $165 on shoes. That's including a new pair with just 8 runs/89 miles on them.

WhyRegisterHere? wrote:

Apparently shoes didn't exist before capitalism. Capitalism is a beast that must be aggressively bridled through regulation and even more aggressive taxation.

$150 shoes that cost, what, maybe $10 per pair to my door, is a travesty, considering that the corporations who use essential slaves to make them pay next to no taxes on their profits. You OK with such a system? I'm not.

UmbrellaMan wrote:

I do love capitalism, without it, I probably wouldn't even have shoes to run in.

Try again. This time, reference Nike’s 10-K filing. Their 2019 gross margin was 44.7%. Net was 10.2%. Fairly fat compared to something like automotive, but hardly a travesty.

Swim Bike Run wrote:

Become friends with those who work at your local run store.

I buy 3 - 6 pairs at a time and get a pretty good discount.

And they'll last more miles since you're not using the same shoes over and over. If you rotate your shoes frequently enough to let the midsole decompress, you can get 650+ miles out of a pair compared to 500

You are paying too much for shoes. If you shop sales, you can routinely get shoes at a much better price. I can reliably get last year's model of Nike Pegasus for $70. Go to a Nike outlet during a sale and price is closer to $40. Yes, it won't be the latest and greatest shoe, but you are going to wear them for literally 1-1.5 months before they are dead.

Let the people who get a year out of their shoes buy the cutting edge $130 pairs.

Yeah, it's an issue. A big part of the problem is that US runners have always been a fairly affluent group that has never really balked at paying gobs of money for shoes. There have been a few companies over the decades that have tried to sell "economical" running shoes, no recent ones that I know of, and the idea never caught on. As a group runners seem to think that there is a relationship between how much a shoe costs and how good it is and usually "good" means the shoe will help keep you from injuries.

But here's the thing, that connection has NEVER been proven objectively. On the other hand there has been research that indicates the exact opposite is true, that higher priced, technically "sophisticated" shoes might cause injuries. If you check into some of that research and think it has merit then you logically would look to buy basic shoes, entry level "joggers" that cost no more than half what common training shoes do. Go to Kohl's, Shoe Department, etc. and you can find them.

If that seems too risky for you you need to look for bargains, close outs, etc. either on line or at your local shop. You also can find very cheap shoes at factory outlets too.

WFH mileage 2 wrote:

As far as hobbies go, running is pretty cheap. In increasing order:

1. Running

2. Cycling

3. Triathlon

4. Hunting

5. Fishing (if you have a boat)

6. Horses

7. Auto racing

8. Flying

Companies are trying to make money. They target people who spend.

Fishing is pretty cheap if you use a canoe or kayak. You can get a good one for under $1000 and it will last decades.

I never bought into the "replace your shoes after XXX miles" flimflamery that Big Shoe pushes. Are their running shoes really that poorly made and short-lasting, or are they just trying to move as much product as possible?

Your "old" shoes are just fine.

My shoes last 1200+ miles, and I get them for $40. It doesn't need to be super expensive.