Why can't shoe companies leave good shoes alone?

The wave rider 14s suck too

A Pied wrote:

Good examples:

1989 Air Pegasus

The Gel Cumulus of 3 (or was it 4?) versions back

Brooks terminating the Radius

Well if people get bored with the same shoe they might decide to try out 15 dollar shoes from Target....which by the way were consumer reports pick.

The best running shoes I ever had were the Saucony Freedom Trainers I used in high school in the mid 1980's. I'm still waiting for another running shoe that my feet loved so much. :-(

As usual, consumers themselves are to blame. Its the same reason for every year-model of a car there's about as much chance of it being worse as better. Joe Consumer has an inbuilt passion for novelty and will buy something new even though the old one was perfect. Thats people. Averaged over long term every new model is 10 steps forward 9 steps back.

Lunar Trainers.

upset wrote:

The wave rider 14s suck too

They really dropped the ball on those.

Say it with me: The Landreth. *sigh*

Ugh, yes, I wore the Pegasus until they messed them up so much I couldnt stand them, and then I switched over to the Windrunner for a bit, then finally abandoned Nike altogether, because they can't seem to help trying to make their running shoes appeal to non-runners.

And neutral shoes are now as stiff and as controling as stability shoes... The cumulus used to be for underpronators and now is stable enough for mild over- pronation.

This is a great question. A long time ago (20 years or so) I worked at a sporting goods store. An Adidas rep was "complaining" how us runners always change shoes and don't stick with one that works. A group of runners all chimed in that the shoe companies should leave shoes alone! They keep changing them.

I ran in a pair of Target running shoes a few years ago. The shoes wore out really fast, probably got 300 miles out of them before they were shot.

conmen wrote:

Well if people get bored with the same shoe they might decide to try out 15 dollar shoes from Target....which by the way were consumer reports pick.

And those Consumer Reports folks know what they're talking about when it comes to running shoes.

I have owned a few dozen pairs of supernova classics back to around 99 and then I got back into running this year the guy at fleet feet could no longer find the old ones so I tried the shoes they replaced it with(cant remember the name now) it was an insult to the original supernova classic and I returned them.

Favorite training shoe all time: Adidas Adios of mid-90s

2nd Favorite training shoe of all time: current Adidas Adios

Totally different shoes, but still brilliant.

Original Streak XC :(

1.) air skylon

2.) air edge

3.) American eagle

4.) original asics gel lyte

On the plus side, it makes buying "old" version shoes very affordable. I just bought three pairs last week totalling $116 because of new versions of the same model. Still, the Brooks Addiction 6s (~2004. I'm not nearly as old as most of you here) were the best shoes I've ever run in, despite them being motion control (I'm only a mild pronator). My circle of runner friends and I back in HS wore nothing but the A6s because they were so good. They haven't been the same shoe since, and I don't particularly feel like spending $100 on a single pair of shoes just because it's got a 9 after it instead of an 8.

I understand why they do it though. A lot of people buy shoes based on how they look and are quick to fall for gimmicks as simple as the words "new and improved."

M.C. Confusing wrote:

Ugh, yes, I wore the Pegasus until they messed them up so much I couldnt stand them, and then I switched over to the Windrunner for a bit, then finally abandoned Nike altogether, because they can't seem to help trying to make their running shoes appeal to non-runners.

The WINDRUNNER! I loved that shoe. One of the few shoes that, when laced up, make you just want to run ridiculously fast. The upper was super soft and thin, no support at all. I was really bummed when I couldn't locate another pair.

The newest versions of the Pegasus aren't all that bad. I feel that the construction of shoe still has the runners best interest in mind...but the colorways are just...I can't.

I agree with you - while i like the XC 2's - they are more for speed work as they make me run with a mid-foot strike.

the xc streaks (originals) were the only shoe in the last 15 years (for me) that i could take out of the box and run in with no adjustments, no pain, and no problems. I still have 1 new pair for racing in - and use some old one's for my long slow runs.

this is the only shoe i can run up to 30 miles in and feel fine the next day.

please - NIKE - bring them back!