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Can Your Running Shoes Actually Prevent Injuries?
Current scientific evidence shows inconsistent findings regarding the relationship between footwear and running-related injuries. To date, no specific shoe type has been proven to prevent injuries across all individuals, highlighting the need for a more personalized approach. Since mechanical overloading is a key contributor to overuse injuries, it is logical to consider the impact load associated with different footwear when selecting running shoes. Using OnTracx technology, we evaluated this in practice—and found that each runner had a different shoe that resulted in the lowest measured load. These findings underscore the value of incorporating objective load measurements to identify the shoe that offers the most appropriate biomechanical fit.
Can Your Running Shoes Actually Prevent injuries?
Despite all the claims and advice out there, many beliefs about running shoes and injury prevention are more myth than fact.
Most runners believe that shoes are one of the biggest factors in preventing injuries. It’s easy to see why: shoe brands advertise features like arch support, cushioning, or motion control as essential tools to stay injury-free. But when researchers examined the relationship between footwear and running injuries, the findings told a very different story.
Footwear based on foot morphology
One popular idea is that shoes should be prescribed based on your foot shape - for example, cushioned shoes for high arches and motion-control shoes for flat feet. This “shoe-shop” approach has long been promoted in stores and by experts. But here’s the key finding: so far, no evidence indicates that prescribing shoes according to foot morphology reduces injury risk. Even in large-scale studies involving thousands of people, this approach didn’t result in fewer injuries compared to simply giving everyone the same neutral shoe.
Footwear based on cushioning
Another area researchers looked at intensively is the amount of cushioning. The logic seems straightforward - softer shoes should reduce impact, which should reduce injury. But in reality, the influences of shoe cushioning on impact-force characteristics were inconsistent. While some assumed that shock-absorbing materials would lower the chance of injury, studies showed mixed or unclear results.
A recent trial investigated injury risk in 247 recreational runners randomly allocated to one of two groups, wearing either a standard running shoe with a soft midsole or a shoe with a harder midsole. No association was observed between shoe cushioning and injury risk.A plausible explanation for these negative results could be that the runners adapted their running technique to keep external impact forces constant and thereby mitigated the effect of the cushioning properties.
What do we learn from this?
What does all this mean for runners? It doesn’t mean shoes don’t matter at all - to the contrary - but it does suggest that the features marketed as injury-prevention tools may not have the effect many believe they do. Right now, there is no evidence that choosing a specific type of shoe will keep you injury-free. Or perhaps better:
There is no evidence that choosing a specific type of shoe will keep everyone injury-free, and a more individualized approach is necessary!
There’s no such thing as a ‘right’ running shoe for everyone.
As mentioned earlier, runners likely adjust their running technique differently compared to one another - even when wearing the exact same pair of running shoes. Since a change in footwear can influence running style, it may also affect the impact forces experienced while running. This means one runner might benefit from a particular pair of shoes (because the change in style leads to reduced impact forces), while another might not - experiencing no change, or even an increase in impact forces, which could raise their risk of injury.
Let’s put it to the test!
Checking whether running shoes have an individual effect on the load experienced during running, often requires highly-equiped (and therefore expensive) lab-settings. However, the effect of different types of footwear on impact forces can easily be tested using the OnTracx technology. Here’s how we set up the test:
3 runners, running on a treadmill at a equal speed (11 km/h).
6 different types of running shoes:
Hoka Arahi 7
Hoka Clifton 9
Brooks Glycerine Max
Nike Alphafly 3
New Balance Fresh Foam X Vongo V6
Hoka Clifton 9 GTX.
2 min of running per shoe.
Impact load measured during 2 min of running, using the OnTracx sensor.
By keeping key variables like speed (11 km/h) and surface (treadmill) constant, we isolated the effect of the shoes on impact load. If one type of shoe were truly injury-preventive for everyone, we would expect it to equally show the lowest impact load across all runners.
Let’s take a look at the results!
The results shown in the graph (graph 1) and table (table 1) below reveal two important findings - both of which are supported by existing literature:
1. There are significant differences in impact load between runners.
For example, Runner 1 experiences more than twice the average load compared to Runner 3 across all shoe types. This shows that - even when running at the same speed (and thus covering the same distance over the same time) – the impact load can vary greatly between individuals. These differences are mainly due to subtle variations in running technique. In other words, running 5 km could be much more biomechanically demanding for Runner 1 than for Runner 3.
Figure 1: effect of shoe type on impact load in three runners. On the y-axis: impact load (G-forces), on the x-axis, the different shoe types.
2. Each runner has a “most optimal” shoe.
When comparing the three runners, we observed that each had a different running shoe that resulted in the lowest impact load:
Runner 1: Nike Alphafly 3
Runner 2: New Balance Fresh Foam X Vongo V6
Runner 3: Hoka Clifton 9
While this study included only a small number of participants — and no statistical conclusions can be drawn from it – it does suggest that there is no single pair of running shoes that minimizes impact for everyone. Instead, the most effective shoe may vary from person to person.
Table 1: the average impact load during a 2 minute run for every shoe type.
What could explain these differences?
Changing shoes doesn’t only affect the shoe itself. Adjusting footwear – just like making other changes to your running technique (e.g., cadence, vertical oscillation) – can lead to shifts in various other parameters as well.
These include spatiotemporal metrics like contact time, as well as kinematic factors such as knee angle and foot strike angle. Because these responses are likely highly individual, it’s no surprise that the change in impact load is also person-specific.
So, how do you choose the right shoe?
Although there’s no right answer dictated by science, selecting the right shoe comes down to balancing a few key elements:
Comfort first. If the shoe doesn’t feel good, you simply won’t wear it.
Make sure your foot motion pattern is within anormal range: ask your specialized footwear store.
Choose a shoe where the load reduces (or at least does not increase) compared to your current shoe.
If I find a shoe that reduces impact, will I still get injured?
Unfortunately, that’s still possible. While lowering impact load might reduce injury risk, most running injuries are due to overuse, which is caused by an excessive amount of load on your body.
Let’s say you find a shoe that reduces impact load by 5–10% compared to your current one. That’s great. But if you increase your training load by 30% each week (e.g. by running too far or too fast), that benefit can be quickly outweighed, and you’ll still be at risk for injury. Gradual progression remains the most important factor (see figure 2).
Figure 2: reducing load based on footwear vs. increasing weekly load. Running shoe 2 reduces load with 10% compared to running shoe 1, and thus has a lower risk of overuse injuries. However, if the weekly total load increases with for example 30%, the benefit of finding the right shoe can be quickly outweighed.
What are the main key takeaways?
There’s currently no single shoe that prevents injuries for everyone.
Shoes can change your running style—and with it, your impact load.
For one runner, this might reduce the load; for another, it might increase it.
Beyond finding the right shoe, a gradual build-up in impact load is still the number one way to avoid running injuries.
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