On the 500 mile thumb rule for shoe life

it also depends on your body specifically. you'll hear plenty of people say they exclusively wear racing flats and run in then until the upper detaches completely. they'll never get hurt.

others have to replace shoes after 200 miles or their knees explode.

i run in hokas for easy mileage and i can feel a noticeable difference in the bounce after 300 miles, but i drag them out to 500-600 with no worry

Put 1500 + miles into each of my last pairs of Boston's. They honestly got better the older they got. Eventually the uppers fell apart.

Boost does not die.

Sadly I think I'm going to have to hoard them and then cry in about 2026 when I run out.

I think the 500 mile rule exists mostly for the benefit of the shoe companies.

In my opinion, you keep shoes until they’re no longer good. That could be at 250 miles, 500 miles or thousands. I have three pairs I rotate and two over them are over 1,000 miles. They still look and feel great. No need to throw them away.

I get new shoes when the holes in the old ones get big enough that my toes start poking out. That or I wear through the rubber on the bottom. My best pair got to 4000km before replacing

My body knows when my pegs have bit the dust. Lower legs start feeling it without fail around the 400 mile mark.

You compress the foam in areas that you load the heaviest, plus the rubber wears off, so the shoe becomes asymmetric over time. Depending on the foam and the shoe that can be a big problem (I've thrown out shoes at 250 miles because they compressed to nothing where I land, or started hurting my knees), or negligible for 1000 miles. It's just a rule of thumb that works reasonably well.

If you rotate several pairs of shoes and don't wear your pairs on consecutive days, you can get them to last a lot longer than 500 miles before they provide poor enough support to retire.

There are so many factors involved in a shoes life that i find it best to just keep an eye on each pair individually and replace as needed once certain parameters become unacceptable. These parameters are different for different "class" shoes as race worthy shoes certainly get retired way before trainers.

Some of these factors include:

- time spent Standing in the shoes (an orthodontist/nurse who is standing all day can wear out a midsole without logging any significant mileage)

- Intensity of runs in shoes (race, tempo & speed workouts are way more abusive to a shoe than easy jogs)

- Type of footstrike (a rolling rear-to-mid foot landing disperses wear over a lager area than a mid-to-forefoot landing)

- Surface run on (fresh concrete is way more abrasive than asphalt roads)

- Shoe upper durability (can stretch out and become sloppy)

- Shoe midsole durability (can become permanently partially compressed in high impact areas, similar to a bed mattress)

- Shoe outsole durability (some are formulated for max grip(soft), others for max durability(firm), and some don't have an outsole at all)

- and lastly... Mileage (more mileage = more wear)

I got a pair of Epic React v1 up to 530 miles or so. They still looked like they were in great condition but a couple things made me retire them.

1. Stitched a hole in the big toes three times. That wasn’t that big of an issue. Rest of the upper was fine.

2. Some part of my leg, it’s been a year+ so I forget, but my leg would always hurt after a run, which never happened before.

3. They STANK! I washed them numerous times, but the smell would quickly come back/never leave.

Got another pair of v1’s on eBay. And never had leg problems again.

Only someone selling you shoes adheres to those rules. Mileage/shoe is arbitrary. Do you still change your oil at 3000 miles too?

Shoes have much less rubber on the road causing them to wear faster. Oil and cars have improved.

Word.

GettingFasterDude wrote:

I think the 500 mile rule exists mostly for the benefit of the shoe companies.

In my opinion, you keep shoes until they’re no longer good. That could be at 250 miles, 500 miles or thousands. I have three pairs I rotate and two over them are over 1,000 miles. They still look and feel great. No need to throw them away.

I’ve never owned a pair of running shoes that didn’t start becoming asymmetric around 250 miles and unwearable by 350 at the latest. It’s probably something wrong with my gait, but It seems I collapse the foam under the ball of the foot right behind the big toe and my feet start rolling inwards on shoes at the end of their usable life. I notice it mostly in my knees.

Thanks to all the replies. The most compelling answers I’ve heard for whether or why to throw away perfectly fine looking old shoes appear to be just twofold:

1) Some runners predictably start feeling some niggles that would predictably turn into injuries beyond a certain (fairly consistent) mileage on their shoes in their experience.

2) Some shoes start stinking even if they look like in good shape and are washed, sort of like a dish sponge. Am guessing this has to do with micro-crevices that develop in the shoe and quickly collect organic waste becoming microbial breeding grounds.

So if your visually fine looking shoes are not hurting you and they don’t stink, there is little functional reason to throw them away, especially because they reached some particular mileage number.

In summary, there isn’t much meaning to the 500-mile or for that matter any mileage-based expiration thumb rule.

I think no. 1 is true for the vast majority of runners and that validates the number. Mechanically perfect lightweight runners who wear shoes out evenly and don’t tend to get injuries and thus can wear shoes for a really long time aren’t the norm.

I toss mine when I just get sick of them and want to try something new. Not sure if I've ever worn out a pair of shoes. Have a couple pairs over 1000 miles on them. I had a pair of ASICS Gel Banditos last over 2000 before I got rid of them. True story - my wife referred to them back then as Asics Gel Burrito. Asics should bring that shoe back with that name!

I 'll probably just toss the 1000 mile pairs because I've become a convert to plated shoes. Not sure I'll run in anything else from now on. They just feel that good.