If you plan on visiting one of our shops, please bring the shoes you currently run in, the socks you would typically wear and any insoles or orthotics you are wearing in your running shoes. Your old shoes can tell a story. The fit, wear pattern, and mid-sole compression can give us valuable information that can help determine what features worked for you or possibly caused problems.

Our staff will ask questions about your current weekly mileage, long term training goals, typical running surface and history of injury or foot problems. To determine your foot type, our staff will examine your foot shape, width, arch height and other important metrics on our state of the art Aetrex scanner. We perform a gait analysis in order to accurately recommend the proper footwear category for your degree of pronation and specific usage. We also offer video/treadmill gait analysis. Video analysis is not a tool that we need to do our job, however, it is an effective way to help you see and understand how we are looking at your feet. The process takes just a few minutes on the treadmill and we will share your recording with you when completed. Running shoes are designed with varying degrees of support. Matching the proper cushion or support to a runner’s foot is the most effective way to ensure comfort and reduce the risk of injury.

Once we have determined the characteristics of your feet, we will recommend a footwear category. For day to day training, the categories include Neutral or Stability. Matching your foot type to an appropriate category is extremely important. Shoes that are too stable can cause as many problems as shoes that are not stable enough. We will explain how the features in the footwear we present will benefit your foot type. Some brands vary in size to others, we will make sure you try options that makes sense based on the criteria we learned in the shoe and foot review. We will recommend a variety of shoes from several manufacturers that will be appropriate for the characteristics of your feet. It’s important to try on several models. Every manufacturer builds footwear in every category to fit their interpretation of the average foot. By comparing several models from various brands, you will find the shoes that best fit the characteristics of your feet

Finally, we let you test the shoes outside on the sidewalk, on our treadmill, or just a trip around the inside of our stores. Some runners have a hard time deciding between models. Test runs can help you determine if a shoe has good cushion, support and is properly sized. Test runs are the only way to feel the transition from heel strike through toe off. Your running shoes should feel like an extension of your foot. After this you are ready to enjoy your new shoes!