Are Expensive Running Shoes a Waste of Money?

The $20 billion running shoe industry wants us to believe that the latest technologies will cushion every stride. Yet, Christopher McDougall claims that injury rates for runners are actually on the rise, that everything we've been told about running shoes is wrong, and that it might even be better to go barefoot...

At Stanford University, California, two sales representatives from Nike were watching the athletics team practise. Part of their job was to gather feedback from the company's sponsored runners about which shoes they preferred.

Unfortunately, it was proving difficult that day as the runners all seemed to prefer... nothing.

'Didn't we send you enough shoes?' they asked head coach Vin Lananna. They had, he was just refusing to use them.

'I can't prove this,' the well-respected coach told them.

'But I believe that when my runners train barefoot they run faster and suffer fewer injuries.' Read more