Shoes, Weather, and Sports

The single most important piece of equipment for a walker (or runner) is their shoes. In order to avoid injury, you must have the proper support from the bottom up. If you don't support your arches in the way they require, your injuries will travel up from your feet to your shins to your knees to your hips and God only knows where they'll stop. Probably the neck. All the more reason to get great shoes.

If your local running store has 1) competent employees and 2) a treadmill with a camera, head on over! Gait analysis is a great start. The first determination is whether you are a pronator or a supinator. First off, most people pronate. Pronation is the natural rolling from the outside of your foot to the inside of your foot. You may be overpronating, though, which is bad. This may mean that your arches are collapsing inside your shoe and you may need more support, also called motion control. Super pronators and/or particularly heavy individuals may need a motion control shoe, which tend to be more expensive.

As a pronator myself (caused by hyperflexible feet, diagnosed by a podiatrist), I use orthotic inserts. I used to have custom ones, but they caused lots of blisters, so I switched to special ones sold by my doctor. There are commercially available orthotics in stores but if you are serious about walking and need orthotics, you should be fitted professionally. Even with orthotics you may need a certain shoe. I require the exact type of cushioning found in the stability shoe Asics GT-1000 series. Stability shoes have a certain amount of motion control, but not as much as a motion control shoe would. These are good for most runners and walkers.

Pronators are highly susceptible to injuries from the knee down. If you constantly have shin splints or plantar fasciitis, you are likely an overpronator. Good shoes can change your life. It is worth the investment in doctors or orthotics to make sure your setup is on point for you.

Supinators are more rare. Those are people who "run on the outside edge of the foot." You probably don't find a lot of supinators in the walking community (possibly racewalking), and they tend to be faster runners (you will see a lot of Olympic runners from sprint to marathon going in this fashion). Their injuries tend to be above the knee (IT band and hips, primarily). If you get above the knee injuries you are probably a supinator. Because supinators don't need a lot of arch support (in fact that is counterproductive), they can wear cushioned shoes, which are the third major type of shoe. This will encourage the foot to fall more across the arch.

Because shoes are the primary investment of a walker, you should not go cheap just for the sake of it. Find a good shoe that works for you and PAY FOR IT. Do not be one of these fools who thinks "oh, Asics sound good, I'll just get a pair of Asics at Famous Footwear." Those are NOT the same Asics they sell at the running store. If a pair of shoes is under $60 MSRP, you probably want nothing to do with it, sorry.

How to Save $$$ on Shoes Without Injury
1) Find out what your perfect shoe is.
2) Do a Google Shopping search for the previous year's model of that shoe.
3) Buy several pairs on clearance.
4) Repeat next year.

My shoes are typically about $95, but by searching for last year's model, I can generally get them for under $60 a pair. If you have a particularly bizarre shoe size, you might be able to find shoes from two model years ago, you lucky dog.

When do you replace your shoes? Excellent question. Your shoes will wear out. The foam rubber will break down and compress. The tread will wear away based on your footstrike. The shoes that once controlled your pronation will eventually start to enable your pronation because the base is worn down at an angle. You will start getting injuries. Right before you reach this point is when you should replace your shoes. If you have good biomechanics, your shoes might last about 500 miles. If you are like me, with feet created by Beelzebub himself, you may need to replace them every 300 miles. Keep an eye on the bottom of your shoes and see when things look fishy.

Many orthotics can last much longer than shoes. I replace my orthotics when the surface gets filled with divots and holes. Yes, that can happen.

Remember, gang: shoes are your only real expense as a recreational walker, besides race entries. Invest in them. They are your first line of defense against injury. You'd rather pay $100 for shoes than $1000 for physical therapy!