Never run before, starting a couch-to-5k next month, 95 kg. I have about $130 and a running store 40 minutes away that offers gait analysis, plus every online shop imaginable. My actual worry is buying something expensive that turns out to be wrong for me and having nothing to compare it against, so I won't even know it's wrong.
Go to the store. Not because gait analysis is scientifically airtight, because it isn't and people will tell you so at length, but because a decent fitter will put five shoes on your feet in an hour and you will immediately learn what too narrow feels like on you. That knowledge is what the 40-minute drive actually buys.
Good reframe. I was treating it as "do they know the answer" when it's really "do I learn my own foot".
$130 buys a very good shoe if you buy last year's version. Retailers discount the previous generation hard the moment a new one lands, and the differences between generations are usually smaller than the price gap between them.
Caveat: sometimes the new version is a real redesign and the old one is being cleared because it wasn't liked. Read what changed rather than assuming it's just a new colour.
Don't buy two pairs yet. Run in one for six weeks and notice what annoys you, whether that's heel slip or a hot spot under the ball of the foot. Then use that specific complaint to choose the second pair. Complaints are much better shopping information than reviews are.
Also buy socks. Genuinely. Cotton socks in a new shoe at 95 kg is a blister factory and the fix costs about $12.
@niacinamide_jo · 5mo ago
At 95 kg starting from zero, the ramp matters far more than the shoe. Walk-run intervals, and do not skip the walk portions because you feel fine. Feeling fine at week two is precisely how people end up hurt at week six.
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