I thought that I had a problem with owning too many shoes -in excess of 40 pairs. Well today takes the cake, yet today for once is a bit of a positive. For the past few months -lets be honest, the whole damn summer- I have been battling a nasty case of shin splints, with the possibility that its become a stress fracture. I have tried ART, and all of the online recommendations that there are to find. Well today was a day to rule out footwear.

I had been running in a pair of Saucony Triumph 4s. Prior to that I had been running in a pair of New Balance 752s and before that Saucony Grid Webs. The grid webs were the best shoes I have ever had, and the NBs were somewhat of a blistery disaster. I got the Triumphs mainly because my online reading led me to believe that they were the closest thing to the Grid Webs. I can’t say that they aren’t.

Well after meeting with Ryan Grant at Solefit Orthotics I was led to believe that the Triumphs were not the best shoes for me. It was a very cool experience; what was actually done was a video gait analysis. There were two cameras positioned fore and aft of a treadmill filming the action of the foot at its various positions throughout the gait cycle. I had both the Triumphs and 752s with me and it was incredible to see the difference between the two. They are both neutral shoes but the Triumphs are a considerably softer soled shoe. It appears that the Triumphs just weren’t providing the the support necessary as there was a great deal more pronation with the Triumphs than the 752 -actually none with the 752s.

Ryan suggested several other shoes for me to try. And he wants me to try new shoes and Superfeet before orthotics. He gave me a list of 6 shoes:

  • Saucony Trigon Ride
  • Adidas Cushion
  • New Balance 1061
  • Mizuno Rider
  • Brooks Glycerine
  • Asics Nimbus

He also wants me to come in after purchasing a few of the pairs to have them evaluated with the video to ensure that I don’t end up with another ‘lemon’. So tonight I went out and bought $500 worth of shoes. I ended up with the Trigons, Cushions, and Nimbii. So here is what my current stable looks like: