Why Your Shoes Matter: Chapter 1

Welcome!

This is Chapter 1 of my E-Book series titled 'Why Your Shoes Matter: What Shoes to Wear, When to Wear Them, and How it Impacts Your Training.’

This initial Chapter will be free, for all subscribers to read. In it, I will be covering the history of running shoes, how we got to where we are today, and how it impacts you as the consumer (and runner).

Subsequent chapters will be diving deep into the particular specifications, how they affect the user, and finding the right shoe for you will all be for paid subscribers of my Substack.

Every Chapter will be its own article and I will archive them together.

Let’s dive in!

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Part 1: Introduction

If were to rewind the clocks back to 2012 and dropped in a modern, 2024 *daily training*, running shoe onto someone’s feet in the field, the entire event would be shut down. An investigation would be underway, lawsuits would be filed, and a calamity would ensue.

For example, take a look at the 2012 Olympics Marathon Winning Shoe: Nike Zoom Streak.

(Image from Nike’s website: LINK)

Today, many runners wouldn’t even consider walking around in this shoe, that’s how harsh it feels compares to the modern technology. With a low (by modern standards) stack height of ~30mm, this shoe and many others are the main reason why the saying “running ruins your joints” became popular.

When the foam is firm and there is very little of it, running becomes extremely high impact—more than old-school runners would like to admit. This became a barrier to entry for many non-runners who wanted to pick up running in the 2010s, but did not have the muscular and skeletal conditioning to maintain the impact.

If I were to drop in the Saucony Endorphin Pro into the 2012 Olympic field, which teeters on the line of being a “Super Trainer” versus a Race-Day specific shoe, the officials would have to make a ruling based on the aesthetics alone. They wouldn’t know what they were wearing, but they would for sure assume it was illegal. The funniest part about this shoe is that it is noticeable step down from top of the line racing shoes currently on the market!

39.5mm stack height, carbon plate, 7.5oz (same weight as Nike Zoom Streak 3 from 2012 Olympics, but 10mm taller.

Stack Height = The height of the midsole foam in millimeters. Usually measured from the bottom of the foam to where the upper connects. This may differ between brands, as some measure from the outsole rubber, which may add a millimeter or two.

Just four years later at the 2016 Summer Olympics, Nike would reveal their next generation of racing shoes—which did cause a stir and eventual investigation into the legality of the shoes as a whole. It begged the question: Could shoes really give that much of a mechanical advantage to the user? Nike already knew the answer to this question, which is why they tried to disguise their first prototype of the eventual Nike Vaporfly to look like a version Nike Streak Fly (the first shoe I mentioned from 2012). All three runners in the men’s Marathon field who finished on the podium would be wearing this disguised Nike shoe.

Later on from 2017-2020, talks of Nike shoes giving runners a “mechanical advantage” would further heat up with the Alphafly being introduced. While none of the runners were stripped of their medals, but the World Athletic Association made a ruling that no shoes over 40mm in stack height and over 1 “stiff” plate would be allowed to compete. The Alphafly was over 40mm, so moving forward Nike would have to adjust the height and play around with the geometry.

(Image of Kipchoge with his Alphaflys from “Breaking 2”)

Brands were racing (literally) with Nike to keep up with their technology. The problem was, no one knew what was happening. At this time, racing flats were still thought of as being the fastest option available. And it made sense too! At the core, a racing shoe needed to be lightweight. In order to make a shoe lightweight, you had to remove the heaviest material from the shoe. At this point (and since the 1980s), the heaviest part of the shoe would be the midsole, made up of an EVA compound. One found almost universally on all shoes from 1980-2012.

This left the public and other brands in shock. How could Nike be making their racing shoes lighter in weight AND have more stack height? (see ban on shoes over 40mm). The rule had to be made on the fly, because previously there was no need for it. If a shoe was even over 30mm in stack height, it was too heavy to be a racing shoe! The idea of having a 40mm+ stack height midsole made of EVA would be like wearing cinderblocks.

(Image from Nike’s website: LINK)

What everyone did not know was that by creating this new lightweight midsole foam Nike would change running forever. Many people want to point to COVID lockdowns as a reason why running skyrocketed in popularity in 2020-2021, but it was simply barrier to entries being lowered, more people could run pain free. Soon we were seeing this new lightweight foam pop up in blends on daily trainers. Other new foams were made as well, along with older foams innovated upon.

All you need to know right now is that all of these innovations simply made running easier for the first time since the 1970s...coincidentally, the last major running “boom”.

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Part 2: History of Running Shoes

Running shoes as a whole came into play during the late 1800s, when regionally in Europe, Track & Field was growing as a sport. In 1896, the first modern Olympics were held and more eyes in general were on athletics. Distance running specific shoes were essentially a piece of rubber (similar to the compound of a tire), bound to leather.

For a long period of time “running shoes” simply referred to thin leather shoes with spikes, and were made for Track events and middle distance Cross Country runners.

Cross Country - Open-air running over natural terrain. e.g. Grass, Dirt, Fields, etc. *Not* on pavement/tarmac.

Two German brothers in the 1940s pioneered many advancements in running shoe technology at this time, mainly surrounding comfort, material, spikes, and weight. These two brothers were named Adi and Rudolf Dassler. They both jointly owned Geda Shoes, and created the shoes Jesse Owens would wear in the 1936 Olympics. Operations would shut down in the late 30s and through the 40s due to World War 2. Both Brother’s would survive the war and reunite in their home village in the late 1940s. A feud broke out and Geda Shoes was never officially reborn.

The two brothers went their own ways in business, and both opened their own running shoe companies in the same village. Adi would create Adidas. Rudolf would create Puma. Eventually both brands would deviate from the running shoe origins and make soccer cleats, boxing shoes, and many other sport-specific footwear.

This left a gap to be filled.

Initially that gap was filled by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight. In the late 1960s, they created a rubber midsole shoe called the Cortez, and sold it out of the back of a van at distance races around the country. In the early 70s Bill & Phil would incorporate their venture together, creating Nike. But they were just the tip of the iceberg for what was to come. Their Cortez shoe was a simple sponge rubber, it still gave the user a beating on their joints and muscles.

Enter Brooks Running Company. Still to this day, they are one of the top selling shoe brands in the world. Their single innovation at the time changed running as a sport for the next 40 years, all the way until Nike made the next quantum leap as mentioned in 2016.

Brooks is credited with the invention of the EVA rubber midsole. This material was unlike any compound found in running shoes prior, and was unveiled in 1975 Brooks ‘Villanova’ shoe. Later in the 1970s, Nike would follow by adding this new EVA compound to their distance running shoes, and releasing the famous ‘Tailwind’.

EVA Foam - Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate. There are a few different kinds of EVA rubber/foam, depending on the blends used, but they are generally the same. When the foam is created, it leaves air pockets which help absorb the impact along with making it lighter weight. They take up space, which acts as essentially removing parts of the foam to make it lighter.

But why is this important you might ask? Well it basically allowed the flood gates to open on distance running. Before, it was essentially impossible to enjoy the act of running unless you had started from a young age and had built up a tolerance over years of training. Heading out for a jog after work in a Nike Cortez was actually worse for you than the aerobic benefits it offered. The impact was too great, and the public responded as such by not running all that much in the 60s and early 70s.

The 1970s running boom is largely associated with the latter half of the decade, when EVA midsole running shoes were widely available. Overnight anyone could go for a run and be in a lot less pain than before. Combine this new technology with print ads in magazines and the average American having more free time than ever—you get a running boom! (Does this sound similar to 2020?)

This EVA foam would be the basis for almost every running shoe well into the late 2010s, with some pure standard EVA midsole shoes still being found at some brands.

Part 3: What This Means for You, as a Runner & Consumer

Now you understand the history of the running shoe and how running booms occur, you can realize that we are currently in one that started in 2020 and will likely run through the end of the decade.

The format is simple:

—>New Shoe technology/innovation comes along

—>Consumers have free time to actually run

—>New Marketing Channels arise (70s was magazine/print, 2020s is short form content)

—>Consumers accept new product + product actually works better than previous generation of tech.

—>Growth of sport!

This time around, you have a lot more at your disposal in terms of 1) Choices in running shoes on the market, and 2) Acquiring the knowledge to understand what shoe(s) are best for you and 3) When to apply them in your training and racing.

The 40 years prior to 2016, there wasn’t much to innovate on. Running shoe companies had such little work off of because they were stuck within the constraints of a standard EVA midsole. Add any extra cushioning and the weight became unbearable. Take some off and the impact too high. They could make the upper unit as comfortable as they wanted, but there was still the same old feel.

Upper Unit - The “upper” part of the shoe that holds your foot. The actual shoe, lacing, heel cup, etc.

Now we have brands playing around with the heel drop, blending *new* midsole compounds, changing the way the foam feels for different paces, rocker technology, form fitting uppers, outsole materials (or lack thereof), and basically every specification is now either buffed or nerfed depending on need. This leaves shoe brands with a lot of material to market on, and many niches to cover.

These are all things brands will try to sum up in one quick hitting digital ad that will cross your phone as you scroll on social media. Promises will be made of comfort, speed, and durability; with many falling short.

The problem with all of this, is that it leaves you too many choices. With one wrong choice could leave you with an uncomfortable ride at best, and tendonitis at worst.

Thankfully for you, I will be explaining all of these points and much more. We will be diving into the specifications of a shoe, what brands do aspects (niches) better. How to diversify a running shoe rotation. Why wearing different shoes can help you. And much more.

My goal for you after reading the entirety of these chapters will be that you can go

into a running store and understand the nuances and differences between brands, certain technical specifications, daily trainers, up-tempo trainers, and race day shoes. No longer will you have to blindly trust the high-on-weed high schooler to scan your foot, not understand what it means, then place you in some shoe that was high tech in 1990.

Time to build your shoe rotation to make you an injury free and faster runner!

Stay Toon’d!