If you watch their ‘brilliant run’ promo video, I don’t think it even takes a gait specialist like yourself to see how awkward their ‘brilliant’ running is.

I rest my case.

Yes, that’s one of the reasons I’ve never tried a Salomon shoe. Then again, I’m not a mountain runner so my opinion might not mean much :)

Same with my wife – I’m the geek who made her try them, now she’s a fan as well.

Will do! I have no doubts about your intentions, I just thought I would bring that to your attention.

I was also probing the local Salomon representative for his opinion on the minimalist movement, and his initial reply was that ultra-distance mountain running dictated their robust designs. I find this in conflict with the custom footwear they provide some of their athletes, most notably Kilian, who wears 7oz trail blazers unseen in the current Salomon lineup. Even the Fellcross is a tank in comparison. Any thoughts?

Why is there much less woman in the minimalist movement? I must say that around here adopting the forefoot/midfoot strike is (still?) seen mostly in the context of boosting your performance and not getting healthier and/or more pleasent way to run – so smg that should concern only fast, competitive runners. So some people find it ridicolous when somebody running at my speed (9-10 min/mile for easy) starts to work on form and wants to wear light shoes – with such a performance it should not metter much to me what I wear…which I fully disagree with. I also often heard that it’s not possible to run on forefoot/midfoot at low speed – I have tested so I know it’s not true but ones fresh to the topic might get misleaded. I also agree that probably woman are less prompt to become running shoe geeks like Dan mentioned (although I must admit to be exception then – maybe being a scientist plays a role). 

Kasia,

As I know how you were struggling, this is great news that your sciatic has not popped back up, so happy to hear it! And yes, being scientists definitely contributes to our desire to experiment :)

I’m definitely happy about it too, especially that I was already diagnosed as ‘nothing can be done with it’ case. Yet since I ‘just’ changed my running form (not with an intention to solve sciatica problem, rather to do at least something if I couldn’t run like previously) things seem to work.

Perhaps the adjustment to minimalist running is more painful to those women who spend their days wearing shoes with a significant rise.   I was never much for heels – not since I was a teenager, anyway – but since I’ve taken to wearing shoes with no heel rise on a daily basis, even a low heel is uncomfortable for me.  If you have a job that requires traditional office attire (I don’t) maybe the transition isn’t as easy as it would be for men.  Just speculating.

I think Lani Muller has a point with the high heeled shoes. I’ve noticed some women who seem to walk on tip toes even in flip flops, like their feet are so used to wearing high heels that they can’t even walk naturally anymore. I’ve never been fond of heels and have always favored barefoot when I can get away with it, to the point that my Mother wasn’t at all surprised when I started talking about barefoot running.