there was a nice talk at the IRRA conference (http://www.therunningevent.com… in austin this week by the gait guys on their new 3 part fitting process they are rolling out in january.  intended audience is running speciality retailers and medical folks, i believe.  

it takes into account some static factors (forefoot/rearfoot varus/valgus, forefoot flexibility, etc), but more dynamic stuff too.  we only saw an intro.  

i took video from the entire 2 hour talk but only have a couple 14-15 min clips uploaded so far.  will try to get the rest up soon – feel free to share, pete.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

hi annabelle, 

i’m a running retailer and a big fan of pete/blaise/etc.  i agree a lot with what they say.  for shoe fit, it’s important to have the running store employee measure both your foot length (at the toes) AND your arch length (while standing of course).  they should use a brannock device, the heavy metal thing you’ve seen at shoe stores all your life.

if your arch length is much shorter or longer than average for your total foot length, the toe joints may not line up in the shoe where it’s designed to bend.  this can put extra pressure on your feet in a bad way, especially if you are wearing more of a traditional shoe with more cushioning and less flexibility.

most people know to have space between their toes and the end of the shoe, but the arch length thing is not as commonly mentioned.

The main focus of shoe companies (as with all companies) is to make money and get people to buy shoes as quickly as possible. Here in Australia the biggest chain of sport shoe stores has a pressure pad thing you stand on which shows an image on a screen (bascially a glorified wet test) and they use this as a basis for recommending shoes. I was once talking to a guy that worked there and I asked hm why they don’t have a treadmill and he basically said that it takes too long and 95% of people who buy running shoes don’t really run in them anyway so it doesn’t matter if they are not the perfect shoes. They just want to get people in and out as quickly as possible and most people believe the pressure pad thing is scientific anyway. 

I agree that we should emphasize that normal biomechanical (anatomically constrained) variation is just that – normal. I would say that is it is clinically important to remember that running and/or activity is for all people – many of whom are not athletes. It is wonderful that some of the world’s best runners are illustrations of curious biomechanics such as G. Mutai and H. Geb – they are well adapted to their unique biomechanical milieu.

Great article Pete!

Wait, humans aren’t animals??? Oh, and I’m quite happy being a slow blogger :)
Sent from my iPad

Ha! Thankfully I’ve managed to shift my day job focus so that it more closely meets my interests :)

it helps when you grow up barefoot and develop musculature to handle those styles!  but agreed…there’s no one perfect form…just a perfect form for each of us.

Active analysis is the only way to even begin to get at what is going on with a particular runner.

Thanks for sharing your experience! I think your story is quite common for people with flat feet, and it need not be that way.