I still exercised but no where near the level I used to. In college my ankles started clicking when I walked bearfoot and trying to run regularly gave me ankle pain and more shin splints. I went to physical therapy but that offered no success.

After college my achilles tendons started getting inflamed. I was very frustrated and dealt with these issues until my 30s when I discovered shoes that corrected my pronation. I was able to run three times a week with no issues. No shin splints and achilles tendon issues.

Keep in mind that I have never been a heel striker. So, I appreciate these shoes and am glad they are here.

You’re missing the point of the article I referenced, which was written by a medical professional. His point is that overpronation is not the diagnosis, it is a symptom. In your example, the diagnosis would be any of the conditions you mentioned, and excessive pronation would be the symptom. In fitting running shoes, all too often people are “diagnosed” as being overpronators based on questionable practices and the term is used to push shoe sales.

Comfort while running and fit would be the two big ones.

I’d recommend going to a running shop and having them take a look at your feet, try a few things on and see what feels best. Even if you don’t plan to run in the shoes, you will get better help at a running shop than at a big box or mall type store. If pain is a problem then seeing a doc might make sense – podiatrist might me a good first stop.

my feet would do what I guess the overpronation term suggests but i am also flatfooted. my feet tend to hurt into the heel, the ‘arch’ and sometimes up into the ball of my feet, even after getting up out of bed. Now i don’t know if there’s a separate underlying issue there with my feet or if the state of my shoes have caused the pain in my feet but I know I need new shoes. Christmas at my job is very fast paced and lately I haven’t been able to walk as quickly through the warehouse due to the pain, it really slows me down.

basically I was wondering what advice you had on what kind of shoe to get? I have been looking into the more athletic shoes, i know everyone at my job has them and don’t seem to have any problems on the hard concrete.

P.S. Paul Welford and Nicole, I’d love to read further responses from you to the blog, did you ever get around to reading the book Paul? Were you satisfied with the peer reviewed literature Nicole?