Why Science Says to Pick the Running Shoe That Feels Most Comfortable

December 30, 2025

Modern running shoes emerged in the 1970s and 1980s, as companies added features like cushioned midsoles, raised heels, and pronation control. It’s hard to get good statistics, or even to compare the very different running populations of the 1970s and the 2000s, but by the time Chris McDougall’s book Born to Run came along in 2009, it was clear that shoe technology hadn’t made shin splints and stress fractures and other running injuries disappear.

There are a few different ways of making sense of this. We could argue that modern shoes really do help, but their benefits are hard to discern because today’s runners are generally more injury-prone than their comparatively hardcore predecessors from the 1970s. Outside