Sport Shoes Are Such a Waste of Money

Sport Shoes Are Such a Waste of Money
By: Caroline Geroyan

If you have just purchased a new pair of sport shoes I highly recommend that you stop reading now! I mean, I don’t know how Usain Bolt started his running career, but I am quite confident he was not splurging on $250 Nike Max Airs. As a matter of fact, I am certain that he was running around on the dry Jamaican land bare foot, and it doesn’t seem to have done him any harm, in fact it has had the opposite effect.

When you walk (or run) into North Sydney Indoor Sports Centre you can always hear the screeching sounds of rubber sliding against the polished wooden floors. On one particular visit, this sound was interrupted by a loud “AAARGH”. A member of the senior men’s team was lying on the ground as he had twisted his ankle. Funnily enough he was wearing what looked to be an expensive pair of Nike basketball shoes. “Take off his sneakers,” yelled the first aid guy as he came to the rescue, “tool box” and all. Once he had reached the injured player he threw aside his shoes, as though blaming them for the casualty.

Ah yes, the smell of brand new sport shoes comes like a cool whiff of air when the box is opened for the first time, especially when you have paid hundreds of dollars for them. But why would someone do that when so much research has been done, proving that they don’t do us any favours? Gassia Hovagimian, a representative basketball player for the North Sydney Bears explained to me (whilst wearing flashy AND 1 basketball shoes I might add) that sneakers “[don’t] make that much of a difference on your physical performance but more on the psyche.” What she means by this is that wearing a prestigious pair of $200 sneakers heightens an athlete’s confidence so that they “feel” as though they are playing better. Just think of that scene in the 2002 basketball flick Like Mike, when Lil Bow Wow looks down at his sneakers before his basketball game, and whispers “make me like Mike.”

The first modern running shoe was created by Nike in the 1970’s, so its only logical to think that they would have been revolutionised to the point of perfection by now. After all, Adidas has $300 shoes on the market with microchips in them and Asics has spent about $3 million and eight years (three more years than it took to create the first atomic bomb) to invent the Kinsei, a shoe that boasts 'multi-angled forefoot gel pods', and a 'midfoot thrust enhancer'. Each season brings an expensive new purchase for the average runner.

So I guess manufacturers and marketers are onto something here, as despite sport shoes having no physical benefits it has become a $20 billion industry. Just recently my friend Anita decided to buy running shoes, so I thought I would accompany her whilst she looked for a pair. Our first stop was Footlocker. Rachel the sales rep bombarded us with 5 different shoes, each one with a longer, more “sophisticated” name than the last. The price tag on one of them screamed out to me; $279.95, a price I would consider selling my soul for. I nudged Anita, pointing to the tag. Her eyes too popped out of their sockets.

“Why are these ones so expensive?”

“Ahh these are the Asics Gek Kayanos. They’re top of the range, brand new.”

Rachel had nothing else to say. Anita and I stood there, obviously wanting to hear more about this supposed marvel.

“Let me call my supervisor, he can talk to you more about it.”

“They provide extra support and comfort,” he reassured as he paced towards us. Anita looked baffled.

“Uhh okay but don’t all shoes do that?”

“Well these are new and they fit the exact contours of your feet, do you want to try them on?” She didn’t, and walked out of the store very confused.

Two sales representatives from Nike went to watch a cross-country training session at Stamford University. Their job was to determine what type of sole the runners preferred, but to their surprise they found that they preferred…well…nothing.

When they questioned this, industry renounced coach Vin Lannana answered, “…I believe that when my runners train barefoot they run faster and suffer fewer injuries.”

So, the very best runners are given the “very best” shoes, but they choose not to wear them. Even Gassia, who is made to wear “top of the range” sneakers by her coaches, told me that “during every training session or game atleast one player twists their ankles or hurts their knees.” As a matter of fact, every year between 60 and 85% of runners suffer an injury as a result of wearing “top of the range” shoes.

Dr Craig Richards, who has spent a lot of time studying the pros and cons of running shoes, thinks that it is the way companies differentiate their products through clever marketing that makes their “features” attractive.

“They’ve been very careful. No major shoe company has ever said these shoes will decrease your risk of injury. It’s all based on perception…”

This is rather interesting considering what Ashleigh Walden, a fit technician from the Athlete’s Foot, a specialist shoe retailer, has to say. When I asked her what she thinks about all the reports stating that sport shoes don’t provide any paediatric benefit, her initial response was “that’s rubbish!” She told me how “comfort and longevity” are factors in the pricing of a shoe, as well as performance.

“Differences between a cheap shoe and expensive would be amounts the cushioning material, whether it has some kind of traction control system, support…”

But that does not make much sense to me because all shoes claim to have that type of support. Also, paediatricians claim that it is shoes in general that are causing our feet damage, not only sport shoes, so whatever we wear, no matter how many high tech missiles, microchips and memory cards are jammed into them, they are of no benefit to us!

So whats the best type of shoe to run with, if any at all? If they arent doing us any favours, and sporting organisations do not let you run bare foot what do you do? Dr Richard’s answer to this is “ Shoes that let your foot function like you're barefoot - they're the shoes for me.'” Luckily for him (and anyone else who feels the same way) Vibram, an Italian peadiatric company has created the FiveFingers, a shoe that is more like a cross between a glove and a sock. Yeah okay, it sounds like kind of an ugly shoe, but Dr Richards, who recently ran in a cross country marathon, noticed that 3 people other than him were wearing them, so it is approaching the mainstream.

And guess what?

Theyre only $100!