This is not a column about bringing back the “good old days.” There was no air conditioning, roads were small and poorly maintained (OK that still is true) and television was black and white with four channels.
This is about common sense and what do consumers need versus what manufacturers are giving us. We’re talking about running shoes, sports shoes and shoes that are supposed to be sports shoes but masquerade as a fashion statement.
I’m a runner. I run. I’ve run a marathon, half-marathons and many 10-k and 5-k fun runs.
I started running in 1983 when going through a leadership school in the Air Force that required one-half hour of exercise three times weekly. Most of my classmates opted for volleyball. With my poor eye/hand coordination, I asked the instructor if it would be alright if I ran around the adjacent park for half an hour. He said knock yourself out and my life was changed almost immediately. But you need shoes.
All I need is a shoe that will give my arch support, control my pronation, lend a little traction and give this old body enough cushion to keep me injury-free for a few more years. That shoe can be just about any neutral color.
But the Gods at Nike, Asics, New Balance, Adidas et al can’t seem to do that.
I wear an average sized shoe, medium width and my only requirement is a little motion control. This is common in running shoes. Most people either roll their foot out (supinate) or roll their foot in (pronate). Running shoes are designed to address this issue.
It’s difficult to find good running shoes in local stores if you are afflicted with foot issues as described above. Most customers are after a soft soled shoe for looks, not performance.
Back when I first started playing high school basketball (right after the dinosaurs went extinct) there was one shoe you bought: Chuck Taylor high tops. It didn’t matter if you were Gabby Leyba or Robert Bustos shooting outside or Dale Livermore pulling down rebounds in the paint or sitting on the bench with me, you weren’t getting on the court for practice without Chuck Taylor’s.
They came in one color: white. You got your mom to drive to a guy’s garage in Santa Fe and for $10 you were hooked up. You had to insert and sell a lot of newspapers, clean a lot of press rollers and sweep many floors to buy some Chuck Taylors.
The point was they did the job.
Now you must go to the internet. The selection is insane. The problems are two-fold. Most sites have my size but not in a motion control shoe. Or they have the right shoe but it’s electric pink or lime green. I’m not trying to make a fashion statement and the last thing I want is someone to notice me loping down the road at what most now call a “jog.”
The problem is shoe manufacturers don’t care about serious runners anymore. That market is not big enough. They need the whippersnappers who want day glow orange shoes with violet soles. They don’t care about motion control, injuries or cushion. Their question is how can I make people look at me?
Buying running shoes now takes me months. I get on a site, find pink shoes that would work, get frustrated, complain to my other half and try again a week later with similar results.
I was getting desperate during my most recent foray into buying shoes. My old pair was pretty much crushed. I finally found a good Asics control shoe at a reasonable cost but in only three colors. I passed on the psychedelic yellows and fire engine red and went with the royal/electric blue variations. My other half says she need sunglasses to be in the same room with them especially when you throw in the neon orange soles. I concur.