The Trails are zero drop. As such, I agree with other posts that suggest that the heel drop may be less important than the sole thickness.

It’s a good question – have not written about this type of comparison. The difficult part is that in any study like that you have people who are adapted to one strike type or the other, so having them switch can provide misleading results.

Interesting thoughts. I personally find drop to make a big difference, but
absolute thickness can as well. I can run midfoot in a lot of shoes, but it
may be because I am constantly varying what I run in due to my reviewing and
thus can shift easily from shoe to shoe. I found that even a zero drop shoe
with a thick sole like the GoLite Amp allowed a fairly natural midfoot
stride. In the Vibrams, however, I think I mostly run on the forefoot, and I
think the Merrells are pretty similar for me. May be a case of a lot of
individual variation.

Pete

Of course, these were not long runs. While there may be little/no measurable benefit to the knees and ankles at impact peak, I think that there may still be a benefit to the feet for some (minimal and strategic) cushioning on longer runs. I’ve put hundreds of miles on my VFF Bikila, and I totally love them, but after 9-10 miles on pavement, there is definitely some serious tissue tenderness.

I’m sure that is correct. And maybe variations in experience. My Sprints have a particularly thin sole. I can really feel the ground. I tell folks that wearing my Sprints feels just like barefoot but less danger of cuts & scrapes. As such, I am feel forced to adopt a soft strike. With my Trails, I feel a lot less ground. From a ground sensation standpoint, they feel like regular shoes. At least right now, while they are still new. As such, I think it is easier for a newbie like me to fall back to my old stride, even with a zero drop.

Or maybe not. I’m just making this up as I go along. I’m quite ready to defer to Dr. Pete!

Hi Pete,
I tend to agree with your experience. I too run in a lot of different shoes and can run with a midfoot strike in all of them, but when I wear my VFF’s or the EVO’s I tend to feel myself touching down on my forefoot and then immediately going to the midfoot stance for the support phase of the stride. Where I notice the difference most is on downhills. When I’m in zero drop shoes I always have shift my landing to a more forefoot strike because of the impact of running downhill. In the more traditional running shoes I can run much faster downhills because the cushioning effect of the extra heel height helps to dissipate the impact of the landing. I’d have to say that racing in zero drop minimalist shoes has the effect of slowing me down. For faster running I resort to my favorite racing flats (Mizuno Wave Universe III). Thanks for posting this study. Every little bit helps to educate people to make better choices.

I would have also liked to see these runners in two zero drop shoes one with cushioning and one without like a KSO