Got evaluated at three running stores - different results!

I remember reading in an old thread that "overpronation" could be caused by shoes with an elevated heel. The idea is that pronation is a natural function designed to absorb shock. You naturally pronate to a degree. But an elevated heel can cause this to occur excessively.

Anecdotally, I had Achilles and shin issues a while back. I was running in neutral shoes with high drop at the time. I tried using a superfeet insert to make my shoe more stable. This helped my Achilles but then I hurt my hip / groin lol. I am now running more miles without issues in a neutral, lower drop shoe. I have a midfoot strike, if it matters.

With this being said, stability shoes CAN help some runners. There are people on these boards who were able to amp up their mileage and be injury free once they got stability shoes. Like most things in running, shoes are a personal thing that varies case by case.

Just search the board for "stability" or "overpronation" or "overpronate". There's a ton of good information. Good luck, and don't be afraid to experiment with your shoe type.

Also, my left foot was the one that pronated more due to rolling it years ago. But my Achilles / hip issues were both on my right side. Lol.

Fleet Feet

Greenville Running Company

Run In

#broscience

there is lots of misinformation in this thread.

fair warning - I'm an employee of a running shoe store

we have a gait analysis scanner that uses both a force plate and a 3d scan to see if you overpronate while walking. I'd be happy to go through all the benefits and limitations of the software (superfeet/HP makes the device "fitstation")

we also will do video analysis on a treadmill, "the old fashioned way"

do we sometimes just check pronation from having people walk 15 feet or something? of course. if we see anything notable though, we will usually do further analysis to double check what we saw. you really just see the obvious cases of overpronation or supination without any kind of measurement software.

for people who say that the force plates rarely suggest overpronation - I find the exact opposite result. I think that tons of people have mild overpronation and could probably benefit from a shoe with a bit extra stability, but nothing crazy.

also...I won't suggest stability shoes to more serious runners who have been wearing neutral shoes without issue. this is where different employees will very though...some of the less experienced employees who just go by the rules will recommend stability shoes a higher percentage of the time. you definitely could expect a different answer from different people you see. no surprise there really

keep in mind that some neutral shoes are more supportive than others

I used to work at a running store owned by a large corporation and when we were fitting people for shoes we had them run or walk on a treadmill with no shoes on while we recorded their gait on an iPad app called coaches eye. It was the best way for us to assess their gait without having the equipment that a podiatrist has.

I worked for a few years at one of the biggest and oldest (45 years) independent running shoe stores in the US. I wasn't allowed to help a customer for at least the first month as I was trained. Frankly you got different results because many stores don't have the expertise or train their employees well enough. You don't need fancy equipment (foot plate, treadmill, etc.). You need salespeople who know what to look for and know their shoes well enough so they can recommend the best options.

Employees should be watching you run (mainly from behind). If the store isn't big enough to do this inside or outside on the sidewalk, a treadmill can suffice. They should watch you do this in a neutral shoe. They'll be looking for lateral movement of your foot during your strike. If you're pronating (like most of us), they should suggest some supportive shoes with some posting to help counteract this and get you back to a more level motion. If it's severe, you'll get something beefy like the Brooks Beast.

Occasionally you get someone with something weird going on (they spin on the ball of their foot, etc.), but most of the time it's pretty straight forward.

Looking at shoe tread wear is NOT helpful. Shoes have different compounds for different parts of the shoe, so the tread wear won't really tell you about how your foot is moving.

I would guess that the vast majority of podiatrists are NOT going to be able to help you. They are usually not sports-oriented and do not usually look at movement.

Bottom line, you need to find stores that know what they're doing.

rgfqr wrote:

I went to three running stores. One told me I overpronate just by looking at my stance and bending my knees. The next one said the same thing except it was severe overpronation. They had me walk about 15 feet and back. The third place had an electronic scanner that made a 3D image of my feet and asked me to walk about 16 feet. They said I was neutral! I am now of the opinion that they only way you can really know ifs to go to a podiatrist (a medical doctor specializing in the feet) and find out.

I can't believe you fell for the old gait analysis trick three times

SJJ!

If it’s of any comfort you you, about 15 years ago I took my daughter to 3 different dentist seeking what first was supposed to be a second opinion, and got 3 different answers.

Based on what happened to you, it seems two votes for over pronating (severe or not, it’s still over pronation), one neutral. Go for the over pronating verdict, unless you want to keep hunting for THE answer you want to hear?

1) There has never been a definition on what “overpronation” is, ever since the dawn of this BS pronation paradigm.

2) there has never been a link in the body of research link in research pinning injury rates on pronation (maaaaybe rate of pronation but certainly not level of pronation)

3) walking is not the same thing as running and a force plate tells you limited information without the motion capture analysis to go with it that you get at biomechanics labs.

Yep EvenSplit, you guessed it. They've done so well because they are really good at what they do. A shoe store that has to have 12 employees on the floor every Saturday is clearly doing a lot of things right.

It’s likely succeeding due to a great selection of shoes and an attentive staff. I assure you though that fitting on pronation is a waste of time.

Nope Tugboat. They actually have a very limited selection of shoes. Because they are so big the store can be really selective of what they bring in (back in the day we were about the only store carrying Nike who didn't have to carry the Shox for example), and the majority of their shoes aren't neutral.

You can assure me all you want, but they've seen more customers than you can even dream of over that time period, so I'll take their word over yours.

I remember a customer I helped there back in the day. The guy came in wanting a shoe to get started running. He was a firefighter and I spent about an hour working with him after watching him run. Initially he had pulled a flashy red Asics Nimbus off the wall. I brought them out and watching him run in them. He was clearly pronating more than that shoe could handle, so after I explain pronation and what might happen if he ran in that shoe we tried some shoes with more support. Eventually we got to a Brooks Adrenaline I think. But after all that he went back to the wall and said, "I appreciate all this help and respect your recommendations, but I'm a firefighter and I just have to go with this red shoe". So bought the Nimbus. We didn't work on commission, but it was actually a more expensive shoe than the Adrenaline. About two weeks later I happened to be working when he sheepishly came in the door. The store I worked in had (I would guess still does have) an incredible return policy. We were like REI and basically would take anything back and exchange it (regardless of how beat up). Like I said, the store has a REALLY good relationship with the shoe companies/reps. So he told me that I was right and his knees were hurting and could he exchange them for the Adrenalines.

The owner of the store always wished he could get away without having a shoe wall, because he (rightly in my view) believed that the way a shoe looked was the least important aspect of it.