Do you really replace shoes every 2-3 months?

a name wrote:

Guessing LRCers average mileage is 50mpw and replacing shoes after 500 miles, that 's a new pair every 10 weeks. Guessing $100 per pair that's $520/year. Is that about what people are doing? What on earth do you do with all your "old" (10-week old) shoes?

I buy a new pair every 6 weeks. I do keep my old pairs and cycle them in for bad weather days. I do though have tendency to keep my track workout shoes for longer as it’s hard to find a pair I like

weigh 170 lbs. Run 70+ miles/week. Most on trails with well over 5000 feet of climb (same down) per week. Forefoot striker.

Forefoot midsole compaction is the first thing to go. Then outsoles (forefoot) wear out.

Some EVA midsoles compact after 200 miles. Shoes feel dead and I can feel rocks and such in forefoot after compaction.

Other shoes with polyurethane midsoles last longer. Have put over 2000 miles on some pairs.

Shoe goo works wonders patching upper splits and outsole wear.

I used to wear test shoes. 500+ hard miles in 7 1/2 weeks destroyed most pairs.

Old shoes become walking shoes. Some go to thrift stores, I resell the good looking ones whose only problem is midsole compaction at yard sales. The go fast at $2-$5 per pair.

You guys are insane. I have to replace my shoes every 300 miles or knees start to hurt. Of course, I've run 75,000 miles so maybe that makes a difference. But the elite college runners I know have to replace their shoes every 500 miles or they're courting injury.

People on here get 2000 miles per shoe? Are you kidding me? Either you're a genetic marvel or you run really slow or you're confused.

I put 5,000 miles on a pair of Nike mayfly in one year or so. I’m lucky enough to never been injured seriously. I’ve had one sprained ankle and one minor achillies issue but solved by changing shoes. I like to run barefoot before and after most track workouts.

I change at about 300 miles and I go through 4 pairs a year. If find that after 300 miles I start have pain in my knees and/or legs. The people here who say they put 1000+ miles good grief! Treat yourself better.

Back in the day it was generally a consensus that shoes were good for about 600miles now the problem if you were running 100 mile weeks you would go through a lot of shoes. I generally had two pair of shoes plus your flats and spikes. As a coach i regularly make sure that my athletes are getting new shoes pretty regularly but we also are lucky to have plenty of grass and dirt to run on so I think that makes a little bit of difference for how many miles you can run in them. Shoes are very expensive in Australia with th average being $140-200. So we try to get as much life out of them as possible.

Jiceytee wrote:

You guys are insane. I have to replace my shoes every 300 miles or knees start to hurt. Of course, I've run 75,000 miles so maybe that makes a difference. But the elite college runners I know have to replace their shoes every 500 miles or they're courting injury.

People on here get 2000 miles per shoe? Are you kidding me? Either you're a genetic marvel or you run really slow or you're confused.

So far, I count about 9 people who have gotten at least 1000 miles out of some shoes, and 5 people (including me) that have had shoes go over 3000 miles. Probably the highest turnout of shoe-user-uppers that I've seen in one Letsrun thread, and I've been here since near the beginning.

I suspect most of the people who run a lot in a single pair are the kind of people that run pretty high mileage and are durable runners. I have around 100,000 lifetime miles.

I'm active on Tinder and usually change out shoes ever 6-8 weeks . I like having new shoes at the gym , and usually have a new gym outfit . I buy 10-15 pairs of runners per year ( all Nike ) and maybe $800 a year on outfits .

if you are doing Hard Training it should be every month! at most 6-7 weeks! even cliftons or bondis!

Fun thread. I get 500 miles or so from my Hokas these days. I don't total them and so I have a lot of "lawn mowing" shoes in a pile.

I had a pair of Pumas (don't remember a model name) and a pair of adidas Cross Countries that I picked up in 1975 when heading off to college. $29 each? I wore just those two pairs for the entirety of my college days, including training for a couple of marathons. Lots of glue and tape and stitching of leather. My feets was tougher back then :-)

I'm heavier, ranging 190-220lbs in recent years. After 250 miles on a typical shoe, I'm just less excited to use them on tired legs, and they do make me feel more injur- prone. Who knows if that's the case, but for me, it is just not worth the risk, given my overall time investment in running and race preparation. I donate them at local running store.

I would say that I have my oldest pair of Nike 4%s at 220 miles and they are still fine to run in.

there's no fixed number. for example: a lightweight runner with efficient strides might do 100 miles per week on 3 shoes per year. some 200+ pound fitness jogger may only do 15 miles a week but end up needing 4 shoes per year. dont let numbers determine how many miles you can get out of a shoe or whether or not you need a new shoe. let your senses tell you.

Good thread, it's certainly answered my question. I'm not too far off the average as it turns out. As there's some real information here, I've plotted the data people gave. Find your name and see if you're middle of the pack or an outlier :-)

https://imgur.com/a/2SIT0Bd

Update!!! Just did a 6 mile trail run on my Bondi so I have 3,058 miles on them. Probably going to wear them in a trail race tomorow that might be really wet.

About half the miles on these shoes were run on the treadmill. Other half on roads and trail. I average about 50 a week and haven't missed a day in 5 years.

Back in my high school days(80s) I always tried to get 1,000 miles on a pair of shoes.

I had a pair of Saucony fastwich that I raced in from around 2003 to 2012 which I would estimate they had 800 miles on them when they finally fell apart.

I used to change shoes around 600 miles because I'd usually start getting injured around that point, then I got a pair of Lunar Trainers and saw a thread here about people wearing their trainers for a thousand or more miles, and I took the Lunar Trainers to 2-3,000 miles without problems. The difference really was that I started doing preventive injury exercises strengthening the calves, hips, etc. Over the past 12 years or so, I typically will run 100-112 miles per week when healthy (I've had a lot of calf injuries since 2010) and will wear each pair for a year or so. I only go for cheap shoes, under $40. I might ask for a cheap pair for Christmas or my birthday every few years and this year I got a pair of NB Rise from the factory outlet in Maine for XMas and then got another myself because they were only about $20. They're very light and comfortable but don't look like they'll necessary last that long. But the last pairs before them were two NB 626s, which were heavy duty and the second pair is finally breaking apart and so I had to go with the new.

The upshot was that I change shoes every 4-5,000 miles now.

I change shoes every 20,000 miles, usually when I start getting blisters on my foot from the grass.

I don't think shoes last as long as they used to. They are flimsy things these days - foamy messes with paper sewn on top.

I run 70-90 miles per week and rotate 4 trainers and 2 carbon plate shoes weekly. As soon as a I notice more fatigue in my feet/ankles/legs in a given trainer it's gone. Lightweight shoes (like an Atreyu, Streak7 or Rincon) I expect to get 250'ish miles out of. True trainers (Peg37, Infinity Run, Clifton7) I tend to retire around 500-600 miles. Carbon shoes (Next% and Alpha) I use a pair for fast workouts and another for racing, though in 2020 I have about 225 miles on my Alphas and they feel great still, Next%s if I get 125 miles out of them (for racing) I'm happy then I use them for fast training runs until 250miles of so.

I come from cycling, where everything is expensive. So running, even top end carbon plate shoes, is dirt cheap to me.

In my mid 20s when running 120ish mpw I would replace the shoes around 650-700. I honestly could have gotten more out of them but at that point I was getting free shoes so I didn't care. So I was replacing shoes at around 6 weeks. Now just a few years later the shoes are not the same quality. My shoes are usually falling apart around 500 miles. Either the uppers coming will literally tear apart to the tread will wear off.