Factors Influencing Runner's Choices of Footwear.

Footwear is often blamed as a risk factor for running injuries, yet the evidence linking specific shoes to injury is weak. Rather than testing whether shoes cause injuries, this study asked a more basic question: why do runners pick the shoes they pick in the first place? Researchers interviewed twelve runners and analysed their responses for recurring themes. The analysis identified fifteen distinct factors shaping footwear choice, which clustered into three broad areas, personal preferences about how shoes feel and perform, the influence of other people such as trusted friends or admired figures, and economic considerations like cost and availability.

Runners described relying heavily on past experience and word of mouth rather than technical or scientific criteria, and many found the decision genuinely complicated given how often shoe models and marketing change. Because this is a small, exploratory qualitative study, the findings describe patterns in how these twelve runners think, not a representative or generalisable account of all runners' behaviour.

If you run, you've probably wondered whether your shoes are helping or hurting you. This study didn't test that directly.

Instead, researchers sat down with twelve runners and asked them to explain, in their own words, how they choose the shoes they wear. The conversations were analysed for common threads, and the researchers found fifteen different things that shape a runner's decision, falling into three broad groups: what the shoe itself feels like and does, who influences the choice such as friends, coaches or people they look up to, and practical matters like price and what's actually available in stores.

Runners often said they lean on their own past experiences and advice from people they trust, and many found the whole process confusing because shoe options and trends keep changing. Because only twelve people were interviewed, these findings offer insight into how some runners think about footwear rather than a rule that applies to everyone, and they don't tell us whether particular shoe choices actually raise or lower injury risk.

This is a summary of research, not medical advice. Talk to your own healthcare provider about anything affecting your care.

This qualitative study used semi-structured interviews with twelve runners, transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically, to explore the reasoning behind footwear selection rather than to test any intervention or injury outcome. The analysis produced fifteen distinct influencing factors grouped into three overarching themes: personal footwear characteristic preferences, social influence from other people, and economic considerations including cost and product availability.

Participants described drawing primarily on prior personal experience and the recommendations of trusted or admired individuals, alongside difficulty navigating a footwear market they perceived as complex and continually shifting. As a small, single qualitative sample, these findings are not generalisable and cannot support causal or prevalence claims about footwear and running injury; they should be read as an initial mapping of decision-making processes rather than evidence of effectiveness or risk.

The authors position this work within a broader effort to understand the