Running Shoes: Don't Pay More

Oct. 10, 2007 -- Running-shoe buyers, beware! Whichever brand of running shoe you favor, the brand's most costly model is no better -- and may be worse -- than its lower-priced shoes.

The warning comes from studies by Rami J. Abboud, PhD, director of the Institute of Motion Analysis and Research at the University of Dundee, Scotland, and colleagues. The researchers used sophisticated tests to measure the performance of various running shoes.

The idea of the tests was not to see how cheap a shoe you can get away with. All of the shoes tested were brand-name shoes sold in stores that cater to runners. Retail price tags ranged from $81 to $152 (£40 to £75) in U.K. stores.

Nearly every brand of running shoe has models that are relatively low, medium, and high priced. The high-priced shoes claim to have more features. Are they really worth the extra cost?

"If you are thinking, 'Pay more for a better shoe,' think again," Abboud tells WebMD. "Do the expensive ones last longer? If they were put through a marathon, would the cushioning be better? We really couldn't find a difference there."

In the study reported ahead of print today in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, Abboud and colleagues tested a low-, medium-, and high-priced running shoe from each of three brands. Each shoe was fitted with specially made insoles filled with 99 sensors to measure pressures placed on the foot.

After covering the shoes' distinctive markings with masking tape, 43 young male volunteers took the shoes for a run on a treadmill. In addition to the computer-assisted tests, runners also rated the shoes for comfort and tried to guess their price.

The result: Low- and medium-cost running shoes cushioned the foot at least as well as -- and sometimes better than -- the high-priced shoes. Runners found no difference between the shoes in terms of comfort. And they were terrible at guessing the price.

Abboud will not say which brands were tested -- yet. His group has already completed two larger studies that he says include every brand of running shoe on the market. When all the studies are published, Abboud says he will reveal the brand and model names.

But Abboud is already delivering the punch line: No matter how he looks at them, high-priced running shoes aren't better than lower-priced models within the same brand.

"What we found is really astonishing," he says. "We are going deeper and deeper to find why we are paying more for some shoes. At the moment, we cannot find a reason except for better material on the outside. Nothing on the inside of the expensive shoe is better."

(Do you buy expensive athletic shoes? Tell us why or why not on WebMD's Exercise & Fitness: Rich Weil, MEd, CDE, message board.)