How to choose running shoes

Where you run, how the foot rolls, what you weigh – and the pairs that answer each case.

Models by technology What the names mean

treadnotes.co.uk takes the shoe apart on its own page – the twenty technologies, part by part, upper to outsole. This page starts from the other end: what you are going to do in the shoes, and which pairs currently on sale do it.

Every pair named below is a model the maker is selling this season. Where a shoe has been superseded, it says so rather than quietly pointing you at last year’s box.

How to choose the right pair

There is no formula. Beyond everything below, a good deal of it comes down to what feels right on the day. What follows are the factors worth weighing up, each with a link straight to its own section.

Answer five questions instead

The same rules, applied to your answers: out comes the sole, the drop, the cushioning and the upper to look for – and a shoe from the table when one genuinely fits.

Factor 1

Sport and surface

Every sport and every surface asks for a different sole. The first decision is where and how the shoes will be worn; everything else follows from it. Below are the three common cases and what the sole has to do in each.

Where they will be worn → what the shoe has to do

Running in the park or round town Road

Solelight, with some bounce
Foamresponsive (React, ZoomX, Boost)
Upperbreathable mesh
Drop8 – 12 mm

Road

Weight205 – 303 g (7.2 – 10.7 oz)
Lifespanroughly 310 – 500 miles (500 – 800 km)
Not formud, wet rock, side-to-side movement
Race daya carbon-plated shoe is for the start line and the sessions before it, not for everyday miles

Pairs that do this now

Asics Novablast 6249 g under a 39 mm stack – easy miles through to a tempo
Nike Pegasus 42the one to buy if you want to stop thinking about shoes
Hoka Clifton 11three widths, and a rocker for when the legs have gone

For the start line rather than the training: the Nike Vaporfly 4, at 166 g and 2.3 mm of outsole rubber.

See the running models

Off-road and on the trails Trail

Soledeep lugs, sticky compound
Protectiona rock plate in the midsole
Uppertough fabric and a toe bumper
Weta Gore-Tex membrane, optionally

Trail

Weight285 – 291 g (10.1 – 10.3 oz)
Lifespan310 – 500 miles (500 – 800 km) – but tarmac shreds the lugs several times faster
Not forlong road runs

Pairs that do this now

Hoka Speedgoat 7long days on rough ground; no rock plate, the stack does the work
Saucony Peregrine 16low, and the closest here between the claimed numbers and the measured ones
Salomon Speedcross 6 GORE-TEXmud and a British winter, and very little else

See the walking and hiking models

Gym and training Cross-trainers

Soleflat and non-marking
Droplow (0 – 4 mm) for stability
Upperstructured, to hold up in side-to-side work
Cushioningminimal – you want to feel the floor

Indoor

Weight280 – 340 g (9.9 – 12.0 oz)
Lifespanmeasured in months: about a year at three sessions a week
Not forlong runs – there is almost no cushioning

Pairs that do this now

Nike Metcon 1022.8 mm at the heel, flat enough to squat on, 65 g lighter than the 9

The Reebok Nano X5 is the other shoe every gym floor is full of. It is not in the table yet: at 340 g it is the heavier of the two, and its cushioning carries no name that appears anywhere else in the shoe.

See the gym models

Factor 2

Foot and pronation

The shape of the foot, the height of the arch and the way the foot rolls as it lands decide which category of shoe fits: neutral, stability or cushioned. Below are the three types of pronation, a test you can do at home with a bucket of water, and how the answer turns into a shoe category.

Types of pronation

Pronation is the way the foot rolls inward as it takes your weight. It is a normal, useful movement – it is how the foot absorbs a landing. It matters here because too much of it, or too little, changes which shoe will support you and which will leave you nursing an injury.

Your footprint gives it away

Neutral

The textbook shape

Normal arch

The foot lands on the outer edge of the heel and rolls gently inward – just enough to spread the impact.

Look for: neutral shoes

Overpronation

Full, solid print

Flat or low arch

The foot rolls too far inward and the weight settles on the inside edge. Commonly associated with knee pain and shin splints.

Look for: stability or motion control

Supination

A thin strip

High arch

The weight stays on the outer edge and the landing never gets properly absorbed. Commonly associated with stress fractures.

Look for: maximum cushioning

The table holds both kinds now: neutral shoes that leave the foot alone, and stability shoes with a support system built into the midsole. The full list is in the table.

Gait → the pairs that answer it

Neutral

Nothing in the midsole is trying to steer the foot. Pick on feel, weight and how long you want the shoe to last.

Nike Pegasus 42the default, and the one everything else is measured against
Brooks Ghost 18a measured 12.2 mm drop and 3.5 mm of rubber – built for heel strikers who want mileage
Asics Novablast 6the light one, if you want the same shoe to go quick occasionally

Overpronation

A support system that does nothing until the heel rolls too far. None of these corrects your gait; they limit how far it goes.

Brooks Adrenaline GTS 25GuideRails, and the only shoe here whose measured drop matches the box to within 0.2 mm
Asics Gel-Kayano 33soft foam over firm foam; heavy, and it lasts
Asics GT-2000 15252 g – the same idea forty-six grams lighter, in three widths
New Balance Fresh Foam X 860v15a 75.1 mm toebox and up to four widths, at the cost of 332 g

Supination

A neutral shoe with as much foam as you can stand, because the landing is not being absorbed by the foot.

Asics Gel-Nimbus 2834.3 mm under the forefoot, and 278 g, which is light for that
Hoka Bondi 941.3 mm at the heel; firmer than its reputation and it does not bottom out
Hoka Clifton 11the same idea 37 g lighter, if the Bondi feels like too much shoe

The stack heights, drops and weights quoted on this page are measured figures, not the numbers printed on the box. Where the two disagree – and on half of these shoes they do – the models table carries both.

The wet test

Wet the sole of your foot.
Stand on a sheet of paper, or on dry paving.
Read the shape the print leaves behind.

A wide print with no curve: overpronation
A clear curve down the inside: neutral
A thin strip along the outer edge: supination

Shoe categories by pronation

Pronation	Arch	What it needs	Shoe category
Neutral	Normal	Balance	Neutral
Overpronation	Low or collapsing	Support	Stability / motion control
Supination	High	Cushioning	Neutral, heavily cushioned

Factor 3

Body weight

Body weight decides how much cushioning and support a shoe has to provide, and how quickly it will wear out. The scale below gives the foam types that tend to suit each band.

What suits each weight band

Body weight is the single factor that wears a shoe out fastest, because everything it adds goes straight through the midsole.

under 12 st (76 kg)

Light and flexible

Cloudfoam
React
Fresh Foam

Asics Novablast 6249 g
Asics GT-2000 15252 g, if you also need support

12 – 16 st (76 – 102 kg)

Cushioned and hard-wearing

DNA Loft
Gel
Zoom Air

Brooks Ghost 183.5 mm of outsole rubber
Nike Pegasus 42the all-rounder
Asics Gel-Kayano 33if the foot also rolls in

over 16 st (102 kg)

Maximum support

Motion Control
Max Cushion
PU midsole

Hoka Bondi 941.3 mm, and 3.4 mm of rubber under it
Asics Gel-Nimbus 28the softer of the two
New Balance 860v15support and width together

Factor 4

The finer points

The details that decide whether you actually wear the shoes: sizing and the thumb rule, the width of the toe box, heel drop, breathability. Plus a few things worth checking before you get to the till.

A handful of checks that take a minute each and save a good deal of regret:

Time of day: Feet swell over the course of a day. The size that fits in the evening is the size that will still fit at the end of a run.
Bring your own socks: A proper running sock and the thin sock in the shop give you two different sizes.
The thumb rule: Leave 7–10 mm – about a thumb’s width – in front of the longest toe.
“They’ll give a bit” rarely happens: Comfort is immediate or it is absent. The fabric softens slightly; the shape does not change.
Try both feet: One is usually bigger than the other, and that is the one that decides the size.
The two-minute rule: Two minutes on your feet and a few steps tell you more than standing still ever will. Anything mildly annoying now becomes unbearable an hour into a run.
Where it bends: The shoe should flex at the ball of the foot, where your toes bend – not in the middle. The middle is there to hold the arch.
Feel for seams: A hard seam anywhere a toe or a heel rests against is reason enough to put the shoe back.

Before any of that, the number itself: the UK shoe size chart in centimetres gives the foot length behind each size, how to measure yours, and what each brand does differently with the same number.

Breathability, heel drop, rocker and width

Breathability

Mesh: summer and hard efforts
Gore-Tex: rain and winter

Insole

The one layer you can lift out with two fingers, and often the part the brand on the box did not make. An OrthoLite insole breathes and keeps its thickness better than the plain foam in a cheap shoe – but the name says nothing about the midsole under it.

Rocker (upturned toe)

A sole that curves up at the front helps the foot roll forward instead of pushing off, which takes load off the toes and the calf. Useful over long distances and while coming back from injury.

Heel drop

The height difference between heel and forefoot. A low drop gives a more natural posture and loads the calf more; a high drop protects the heel. Changing it sharply is the classic way to pick up an Achilles problem, so move gradually.

Toe box width

A wide toe box matters if you have broad feet or a bunion (hallux valgus). Several brands publish a wide fitting alongside the standard one – it is worth asking for, rather than sizing up. The widths below say which shoes start wide before you ask.

Toe box, measured

No brand publishes this number, and “roomy” on a product page means nothing you can act on. These are the widths at the big toe, in millimetres, for the fourteen shoes I have a measurement for, widest first. The whole list spans under five millimetres, which sounds like nothing until you have spent an hour inside the narrow end of it.

Width at the big toe, standard fitting, men’s size 9
Shoe	Toe box	Other fittings
New Balance Fresh Foam X 860v15	75.1 mm	up to four widths
Nike Metcon 10	73.4 mm	–
Nike Vaporfly 4	73.2 mm	–
Brooks Adrenaline GTS 25	72.8 mm	–
Hoka Bondi 9	72.5 mm	–
Asics Gel-Nimbus 28	72.5 mm	a wide version in many countries
Asics Gel-Kayano 33	72.4 mm	more than one, by market
Nike Pegasus 42	72.3 mm	–
Hoka Speedgoat 7	71.4 mm	wide
Asics GT-2000 15	71.3 mm	2E, 4E
Asics Novablast 6	71.0 mm	–
Hoka Clifton 11	70.9 mm	three widths
Brooks Ghost 18	70.6 mm	up to four widths
Saucony Peregrine 16	70.3 mm	–

A dash means I have not been able to confirm another fitting, not that the shoe has none. The number is the toe box alone. The size chart covers the other half of the question – the length behind each UK number, and what each brand does differently with the same one.

The stories behind the brands

Where the technologies in the tables came from: who came up with them, what problem they were solving, and why they look the way they do.

All articles

Who I am

I run, I walk, and I spend far too long reading spec sheets. This site is where I put what I find out: what holds up over the miles, and what turns out to be a word printed on a box.