The main intent behind a runner using good athletic shoes is to try to help prevent injuries and help them run more quickly. Using the wrong running footwear for a runner is considered to raise the risk for an exercise related injury and make the running less economical. Whereas if the best suited running shoe was used then there is a lower probability for an injury and the runner is more efficient in the way they run. There is a lot of dialogue if the running shoe will actually reach that goal or not. There's not a whole lot of data to support that and what little science there exists implies that it might not be the correct assumption that the running shoes might actually prevent overuse injury. Different running footwear companies have approached the matter or concern diversely with each brand featuring up unique approaches with various degrees of success. There is an extremely broad range of running shoes on the market, with each and every brand and model having various design characteristics which the running footwear shop should probably match all of them up to the requirements of the individual runner.
Just over a year ago, Nike launched the brand new Nike React Infinity running shoe with the daring claims that it could minimize running injury by 52% and they had research to back that promise up. You have to be very careful making these kinds of health claims about running shoes as they possibly can be and also have been the reason behind a lawsuit as well as settlements with the regulation government bodies previously. As of writing this, the study that backs up the claim hasn't been released for expert critique and all that's available is an abstract of the results of the research. The investigation was performed by a university for Nike. The research separated 226 runners spanning various ages and abilities into 2 different groups as they were preparing for a half marathon. One group of the athletes used the Nike Structure that is a traditional motion control running shoe and the other group ran in the new Nike React Infinity Run running shoe. The outcomes revealed that runners using the React Infinity had a 52 percent lower overuse injury incidence as opposed to runners using the motion control running footwear. The wearers of the React Infinity furthermore noted that they felt much less pain within their knees and also the feet from the running. These results look promising, however the data does need to be put under more analysis prior to it being widely believed.
Many of these challenges are often challenged and litigated in several places. An episode of the live chat, Pod Chat Live has been focused on the aforementioned concerns. In this show the two hosts (both runners) discussed this issue with Michael Nitschke who's a podiatrist, a great runner as well as a running coach. In a thread on the message board, Podiatry Arena, there is a lot of commentary about the Nike promises about their Nike react reducing running injury rates. Given the wide range of varying perspectives and thoughts this is an issue that isn't going to be fixed in the near future.