Are expensive running shoes a waste of money?

A fascinating article in The Daily Mail about running shoes and whether they are worth their money. If you are a runner or even like to walk a lot, it is well worth the read.

My favorite quote:

Dr Craig Richards… revealed there are no evidence-based studies that demonstrate running shoes make you less prone to injury. Not one.

It was an astonishing revelation that had been hidden for over 35 years. Dr Richards was so stunned that a $20 billion industry seemed to be based on nothing but empty promises and wishful thinking that he issued the following challenge: ‘Is any running-shoe company prepared to claim that wearing their distance running shoes will decrease your risk of suffering musculoskeletal running injuries? Is any shoe manufacturer prepared to claim that wearing their running shoes will improve your distance running performance? If you are prepared to make these claims, where is your peer-reviewed data to back it up?’

Dr Richards waited and even tried contacting the major shoe companies for their data. In response, he got silence.

And also,

Runners wearing top-of-the-line trainers are 123 per cent more likely to get injured than runners in cheap ones.

Antidote du jour

One of my favorite blogs of the day is Naked Capitalism. The blog offers an almost increasingly despairing look at the economy and the politics behind making it better, and makes you want to crawl into a hole and hide for a couple of decades after you read it.

It is topped off by posts of “Links“, which contain a barrage of interesting and usually pessimistic links from across the news and blogosphere. At the end of each of these “Links” posts, however, contains a picture that author Yves Smith entitles “Antidote du jour”, usually contributed by a reader. Instead of describing the picture, I’ll post a few below.



Given the starkly negative (/realistic?) tone of the blog, “Antidote du jour” always makes me smile.