These are my Mizuno Enerzy. They are only a few years old, but they survived my 110kg to 75kg, 5km in 50 mins to 10km in 55 mins fitness journey. Its getting a bit embarrasing at the gym when people see the duct tape. Ive already stitched the holes up three times.
How long are running shoes supposed to last you? They are expensive! Are they expected to do this, or should they last much longer?
I usually get around 1200km out of my pairs, but I also tend use them longer than ideal. Some will last longer than others, e.g. I had a pair of saucony triumph were the foam held up very well.
Generally it is not the upper or outsole that makes retiring the shoes necessary (they’ll still look visually fine), but the midsole going flat. Which is kind of the point for which one buys specialised running shoes: the shock absorption and energy return the midsole foam provides.
For me the sign that a shoe is nearing the end of it’s useful life is usually that I start feeling the impact more in my knees after longer runs. But imo getting a second pair and still using the older one occasionally let’s you get a bit more mileage out of your shoes. Also helps with comparing new vs old.
Generally I agree that running shoes are expensive, and I was surprised how much it ends up costing if you run serious mileage. But there are ways to save money and I usually spend between 50-80€ on my daily trainers, which is roughly a bit below half of the sticker price.
Buy online, look for sales at the end of the season and before new releases, buy last years models, and be flexible. For buying online to get the size right look at the cm sizing (or jpn sizes that equal cm), which for me so far has always been spot on, where EU sizes very. Also some models are usually good value, like for example the puma velocity nitro (version 1,2 or 3 doesn’t matter too much so, all are solid).
I never considered buying online. But I always felt it was such a drag to go into the physical store and get shamebaited by the salespeople.
How can you be sure ypull like the fit of what you buy in stores?
Most online stores for running shoes have pretty good return policies, so i’d just buy from those that allow returns. But i’ve only had to use returns once or twice between my many orders. Tbh i’ve only ever bought my first pair locally, felt ripped off paying 140€ for a pair of asics gt-2000 and ever since ordered online without issues.
You want them to be comfortable and with roughly 1 thumb width of space in the front. Also lacing matters a lot. I’ve had shoes hurt after a few km running, because i laced them too tightly. Which was fine at the start, but during your run your feet will swell up a bit (that is also what the extra space in front helps with).
As said for me the thing that works is to google a size chart for the model and not go by EU sizes, but cm (or JPN sizing, which equals cm). Those are very consistent between brands. For example my “main” brand is probably saucony where i have a EU46, which correlates to 29,5cm. I had my Brooks Hyperion tempo in EU45,5, which for brooks is 29,5cm. And i had 3 pairs of puma so far (2 velocity, 1 liberate nitro) all in 46 that in reality are actually a bit long, which tracks with the fact that for puma EU46 is 30cm. So i know i ideally want 29,5cm with 30cm being fine (but anything shorter doesnt work).
Beyond that it is just minor fit differences, e.g. altra shoes have wide toe boxes, nike are said to run a bit narrow and so on. Usually you can learn these from a decent review, if they mention it.
That said for this to work you need to either know your shoe size at least once. Either from your old shoes, trying some in store, or you estimate with the guides on online sites (and return if they end up the wrong size).
As for which type of shoes to buy, unless you have a rotation of multiple shoes you’ll probably just want a decent and versatile daily trainer, which basically every brand offers.
Well I gave it a shot and got some discounted Mizuno trail run shoes in my size. Im sure they will be fine. Thanks for the advice!