--- title: How To Choose Running Shoes: New Research Helps Answer Questions description: New research published suggests the best running show to prevent injury may just be the shoe that's most comfortable. canonical: https://time.com/3985390/running-shoes-injury/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-05T15:36:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T09:54:57.628Z article:section: Health og:title: Here's How You Should Really Choose Your Running Shoes og:description: It's less complicated than you may think og:url: https://time.com/3985390/running-shoes-injury/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4a5950bb6d8a948c/69885dfcf887dc8b2be91ba3/running-shoes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 7360 og:image:height: 4140 og:image:alt: Unrecognizable athlete tying shoelaces on sports sneakers. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's How You Should Really Choose Your Running Shoes twitter:description: It's less complicated than you may think twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4a5950bb6d8a948c/69885dfcf887dc8b2be91ba3/running-shoes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's How You Should Really Choose Your Running Shoes > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Aug 5, 2015 3:36 PM UTC  Unrecognizable athlete tying shoelaces on sports sneakers. Unrecognizable athlete tying shoelaces on sports sneakers. Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Aug 5, 2015 3:36 PM UTC Anyone who has ever been on the market for [running shoes](https://time.com/shopping/article/best-running-shoes-for-men/) knows that a trip to a sports retailer can get complicated fast. To find the shoe most likely to help you prevent injury, you may have been asked to consider factors such as “foot pronation” or “impact factor.” Now, new [research](http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2015/07/28/bjsports-2015-095054.short?rss=1) published in the _British Journal of Sports Medicine_ suggests that the best running shoe to prevent injury may just be the shoe that’s most comfortable. “Comfort is difficult to define and to quantify,” researchers wrote in the study. “However, it seems that shoe comfort is important for running injuries as well as running performance.” Many runners believe foot pronation, the roll of the foot wall while moving, and impact force while exercising determine which shoes best fit a particular runner. But researchers looked at decades of research on connections between sports shoes and injuries and found no meaningful association between those factors. ‘Two variables that were thought to be the prime predictors of running injuries are not valid,” the said in the study. The study authors wrote that many runners have likely avoided injury in the past by selecting shoes they find comfortable. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3985390/running-shoes-injury/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3985390/running-shoes-injury/"},"headline":"Here's How You Should Really Choose Your Running Shoes","datePublished":"2015-08-05T15:36:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T09:54:57.628Z","description":"It's less complicated than you may think","url":"https://time.com/3985390/running-shoes-injury/","keywords":["Exercise & Fitness"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4a5950bb6d8a948c/69885dfcf887dc8b2be91ba3/running-shoes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4a5950bb6d8a948c/69885dfcf887dc8b2be91ba3/running-shoes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Unrecognizable athlete tying shoelaces on sports sneakers.","caption":"running-shoes","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/exercisefitness/","name":"Exercise & Fitness"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3985390/running-shoes-injury/","name":"Here's How You Should Really Choose Your Running Shoes"}}]}] ```