As of last week I owned 16 pairs of running shoes. Before you smirk, I hasten to add that I own all these shoes because I regularly use them all. If I were an automobile mechanic, would you say I was silly to own 16 wrenches?
Shoes are so basic a subject that one rarely reads about them in sports coverage. American fitness culture has matured to the point where people no longer ask you or me, “What’s the best running shoe?” The answer is unequivocal: the best shoe is the one that fits your feet and feels good when you run in it. Compare the first flush of the 1970s Running Boom, when Runner’s World published its annual rankings of “the best” running shoes. Lists and bests-of are an effective way to sell magazines, but they’re not the way to buy shoes. As any runner will say, “You don’t run in rankings.”
Like every other running shop around the country, Marathon Sports in Northampton displays a wall of footwear. Notice how most current models from nearly any manufacturer feature soles much thicker than what we wore 50 years ago. Much of the credit for that development goes to the Hoka company. As Smith College coach and Marathon Sports employee Eric Pfalzgraf explained to me when I dropped by the Pleasant Street store, Hoka’s cushiony soles emerged as an alternative to the minimalist shoe design inspired by Christopher McDougall’s 2009 book “Born To Run.”
In his lively book, McDougall described how the Tarahumara people in northern Mexico run hundreds of miles over rough terrain in what are basically flat sandals. Minimalist shoes became what you were supposed to wear. Curious, I bought a a thin-soled New Balance pair for roads, and a pair of Merrills for trails. I ran in them, but soon I discovered I needed more cushion. The minimals became my walk-around shoes for errands.
“While the other companies were doing minimalist,” said Pfalzgraf, “(Hoka) started doing maximalist.”
I tried on a pair of Hokas. Very cushiony. Personally, I’d hesitate to run hard in them, lest I turn my ankle from their elevated height, but they’d be good for slow training.
Hoka’s innovation is not the only word in current shoe design. Topo and Altra feature especially wide, round toe boxes — ideal for those of us whose feet are D or E width. Fifty years ago, most running shoes tapered at the toe. Why? Pfalzgraf suggested it was because running shoes copied dress shoes, a style more visually than physically satisfying. “The shoe companies weren’t using real feet as the model for what they were making.” Now they are.
Where are the old familiar names? Nike? adidas? Brooks? Saucony? And every New Englander’s favorite, New Balance, with its vast facade where the Mass. Pike passes through Allston? They’re all alive and well, but no longer dominant. In fact, Northampton’s Marathon Sports store doesn’t stock Nike. “We have them in our other stores,” said Pfalzgraf. “But we’re Western Mass. We’re different.”
Jeff Anderson, the owner of Kelley’s Pace in Mystic, Connecticut, offers a more specific explanation. “We don’t carry Nike,” he said last Sunday, when I visited the store established by 1957 Boston Marathon winner John J. Kelley. “They would allow us only three models to sell, and not the models we wanted. They won’t give a lot to stores like us. I’ve never missed them — except for their racing spikes.” He added that he doesn’t carry adidas for the same reason.
If shoes are ever mentioned in a sports article, they’re probably the new “super shoes.” Pfalzgraf showed me a pair of Brooks’s fastest: flashy lime-green soles, two-tone blue uppers with a silver stripe, and — the essential element — a carbon plate embedded in the middle of the sole so that it flexes with every step to produce extra rebound. Elite athletes wearing these may indeed shave a few seconds off their race times.
Finally, for fun, I tried on shoes by a company called On, which offered another comparison to thick Hoka-type soles. Pfalzgraf said I might find these to feel harder. They looked gimmicky, like shoes for people who want to make a fashion statement. The sides of the sole are perforated with holes that remind me of the three holes on the front fenders of an old Buick. Seriously?
I tried them on. They fit perfectly. Trotted around the store. Excellent support, good response from every step. I now own 17 pairs of running shoes.
John Stifler has taught writing and economics at UMass and has written extensively for running magazines and newspapers. He can be reached at jstifler@umass.edu.