Is there any method to how you pick which shoes you use in your rotation, or is it pretty similar to what has already been mentioned?
There is some method. And sorry in advance for the long post.
The first is what companies send me. That’s a couple Asics’s, Adidas Solar Gide STs, the Brooks & Saucony Guides off the top of my head. Beggars can’t be choosers.
The second is I want at least 2 and preferably 3 day in day out somewhat cushy training shoes for those daily just go log miles runs. That’s the Transcend, Guide and Solar Glide’s. Today was the first run in the Saucony Guides and I liked them. They fit better on my foot without the ISO fit
On a side note I personally don’t worry about drop to much, ymmv. You can skip the next few paragraphs if you don’t want to know why.
IME <10% of all people can detect a 4mm difference. I see people all the time coming in demanding a 0-4mm drop shoe. When you ask them to just try a GT2000, Ride, ghost or transcend etc > 60% of people have that lightbulb moment where they respond OMG this shoe is so much more comfy and feels better to run in than what I’ve been running in.
On the other hand I’ve seen people say this Hoka at 5mm drop is ridiculously more comfy and feels much better running than the 4mm Hoka but I’m buying the 4mm drop bc I don’t want to go higher than 4mm _O_/
There is a study somewhere out there where they took people habituated to 0 drop shoes. They had shoes made the same so everyone was blinded but the shoes had 0,4,8,12 mm drop. It was a cross over design so everyone ran in every shoe. They ranked how much they liked running in the shoes right after wearing them before moving onto another shoe.
Guess what drop the majority of the 0 drop habituated runners ranked as the shoe they prefered?
The 12mm drop shoes.
Again one of those puzzling things where people swore by 0 drop and preferred running in the 12mm drop shoes. _O_/
Then I want a pair of shoes that I can use for tempo/threshold inside other runs but on the groomed, packed dirt trails I run on but not the track. I’m probably weird like this _O_/ haha.
I want a treadmill/track/speedwork shoe that I’m also willing to race 70.3s in (typically the Asics DS trainers and I have a pair of Adidas Boost although they are a bit narrow for my feet. After ~ 6 miles in them I’m thinking about junking them unless someone wants to buy them for cheap (these I actually bought). I recently tried on a pair of next Gen Nike’s and am thinking about buying them. My cost is well below retail so I figure why not.
Finally I want a long run shoe. This can be a specific shoe or one of the daily rotation shoes. Currently and for the last 2.5 -3 years it’s been the Adidas Supernova ST now Solar Glides ST. I heart me some 80% TPU/20% EVA midsoles. These are also day in day out shoes.
I’m lucky I get to try on and test a wide variety of shoes, both current models and future models that aren’t on shelves yet.
This could be hyperbolic but IMO the Adidas Boost material is the biggest game changer this century in running shoes. It was proven to reduce the cost of running (aka increase running economy) head to head against other shoes in multiple studies. It forced the other companies to go back to the drawing boards and come up with foams that were more cushioned & possessed more rebound.
At one point something like 5/6 or 6/7 marathon world records were run in Adidas. It was the 4% shoe before the 4% shoe. And while 2 ml/kg/min doesn’t sound like a big reduction, when you’re on racing on the rivet, the strain and pain evident on your face, wondering if you’re going to crack or explode, that small difference may mean you’re pretty deep in the suffer zone vs severely suffering