How To Find The Best Running Shoes: Runner-Approved Tips

For What It’s Worth is a live podcast about the stuff we use, the trends we question and the products we can’t stop talking about. Stream new episodes bi-weekly on YouTube, hosted by NBC Select editorial director Lauren Swanson and NBC Select reporter Zoe Malin. Shop our product picks below and on Amazon.

If there’s one topic NBC Select editorial director Lauren Swanson and I can talk about for hours, it’s running shoes. Between the two of us, we’ve logged thousands of miles throughout our running careers, and crossed the finish line at 5Ks, 10Ks, half marathons and marathons. That means our closets are overflowing with sneakers — but not all of them are good ones.

In this episode of For What It’s Worth, NBC Select’s live podcast, Swanson and I break down how we test running shoes and our all-time favorite options. We also share our running shoe-related horror stories, including blisters the size of Mount Everest and lost toenails that take months to grow back.

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Episode transcript

LAUREN: All right, we’re going to talk about running shoes.

ZOE: Our favorite topic on the planet of Earth.

LAUREN: This episode will probably not be an hour long, but it could be.

ZOE: It could be multiple hours long, actually.

LAUREN: Because we have many thoughts. You have pet peeves you want to talk about.

ZOE: So many.

LAUREN: First, I have would you rathers.

ZOE: Okay, my favorite.

LAUREN: Would you rather run in shoes that are super lightweight but offer no cushioning, or super cushioned but very heavy?

ZOE: I hate both of these options, actually.

LAUREN: You have to pick.

ZOE: I know. Probably lightweight but not cushioned, because I feel like when I’m wearing heavy shoes, I physically can’t move my feet. I’m not getting anywhere. Once I tried this pair of carbon-plated shoes, which are supposed to be lightweight, but they were not, and I was running in the park, and I was like, Why am I such a bad runner today? There’s something wrong. And then I got home and I looked up the shoe, and I’m like, This is the heaviest shoe I’ve ever worn in my life. It was like weights on your feet, so I would have to go lightweight.

LAUREN: It depends on the distance, right? If you’re doing a quick, easy run, who cares about a little extra weight, a little spring in your step? But if you’re going a long distance and you don’t have cushion, you’re gonna destroy your foot. You’re going to destroy it.

ZOE: Oh yeah, and your knees and your everything.

LAUREN: Would you rather have running shoes with maximum energy return but they squeak loudly with every step, or shoes that are silent but feel totally flat?

ZOE: I don’t care about some squeaking. I’ll have my noise canceling headphones in. Everyone else will suffer, but I’ll be fine. I think squeaky shoes, who cares? I don’t think I’ve ever had that.

LAUREN: I’ve never had squeaky shoes, I don’t think. Unless they’re brand new maybe.

ZOE: But other than that I don’t think I’ve ever had a squeaky running shoe.

LAUREN: Now you just jinxed yourself.

ZOE: Now I’m going to pay extremely close attention. And yes, I totally did.

LAUREN: The next new pair you’re to try is gonna be like…

ZOE: I’m going to be like, Oh, Lauren.

LAUREN: Would you rather only be able to run in trail shoes on the road, or road shoes on the trail?

ZOE: Road shoes on the trail. I’ve done it. Who cares? It’s fine. Is it the best thing in the world? No, but you do what you have to do.

LAUREN: Would you rather have running shoes that make you faster but give you blisters, or shoes that are super comfortable but add 30 seconds per mile?

ZOE: 30 seconds per mile. I don’t care.

LAUREN: You don’t have vanity about time or pace.

ZOE: I’m not a pace person. I don’t care. I’m a feel person. I think that you actually can injure yourself if you’re going so fast and you have nothing else taken care of. I don’t think that’s a good idea, in my personal opinion.

LAUREN: We’re both runners. You’re more of a consistent, reliable runner than I am. I’m like, I do it for the races, I do it for the glory and the medals. And then I’m like, all right, I’m done. But you’re like, every day. At the end of the year one year, we did running by the numbers because we had tested a bunch of sneakers. You were out of office when we were calculating. And I was like, Well, I know Zoe runs at least five miles every day, and then she runs 10 miles every weekend. So then we calculated every single week, and I had just calculated my miles and then did a hair flip emoji. And then I calculated yours, and I was humbled very fast.

ZOE: I don’t even think about it. I’m trying to think, like, Have I ever thought about that? I don’t think so, until we started calculating for awards and stuff. But I was never a runner. I danced my whole life, and my mom had always been a runner. She was the person who was up at five o’clock in the morning before the kids woke up, running 13 miles. And I always thought it was the coolest thing, but I never did it. And then I was really stressed in school, and I just was having a hard time getting my anxieties out. And she’s like, I think you need to move. I think the most important thing for you is to get out of sitting and being still. You need to move your body. And dancing wasn’t doing it because I was competitive dancing, so that’s stressful. That’s not creative. It’s a lot of pressure. So she’s like, You need to do something that has no attachment. Just go run around the block. And I just loved it. And then we did 10ks and things like that together. And then as I got older, I was like, I’m going to break your heart, mom, but I really like running alone because I think it’s so peaceful. That’s my “me time.” I just love turning my brain off and not thinking about literally anything. That’s why I love it. I’ve always felt that way about it, and I think that’s why I’m not a race person anymore. I know myself, and I know the minute I sign up for a race, I will be the most competitive person, not with everyone else, but with myself. And I don’t want to start doing that to something I love so much, so I try to leave it alone. And it’s hard sometimes, because people are like, I want you to run with me. I’m like, I really can’t do it. I just know myself too well to just dip my toe in.

LAUREN: It takes the joy out of it. If you’re not doing it for the reason or in the way that you find brings you the most joy, then it’s like, Why do it at all?

ZOE: Yes. The other day, my friend called me and I was out of breath, and she’s like, What are you doing? I’m like, I’m running 14 miles. And she’s like, For what? And I was like, What do you mean? It’s beautiful out. I’m on Randall’s Island looking at the beautiful nature. She’s like, But you’re running 14 miles and it’s a Monday night. I’m like, This is so fun for me. And she’s like, Okay, call me back later. You’re insane. But I really do. I think it’s so fun.

LAUREN: How many miles do you run on a normal basis?

ZOE: I run 30 miles a week.

LAUREN: That’s pretty good.

ZOE: I don’t think that’s crazy.

LAUREN: I don’t think it’s that crazy.

ZOE: Thank you. I appreciate that.

LAUREN: Are you running every single day?

ZOE: No, I don’t run every day anymore. I used to when I was doing shorter distances. But now I do longer distances less days because I really love cross training. I never loved cross training growing up, but now I really do. I love Pilates and strength training and going to barre classes and yoga and stuff. I don’t want to miss out on that, so I feel like the longer distances five days a week, rather than shorter distances seven days a week, is a better schedule for me.

LAUREN: I haven’t been running a ton lately, and so my mileage is zero. But when I was running a lot, like when it was marathon training, or even just training for a small little race and knowing that it’s coming up, it was more than 20 miles a week, but that was kind of the minimum.

LAUREN: I love running after work. That’s my time. I tried running in the morning. It’s just not for me, unless it’s a Saturday or Sunday.

ZOE: I understand that.

LAUREN: On the weekend, I’ll run in the morning because you get it over with and then you can enjoy the rest of your day. Running before work, I did it once last marathon training season because it was one of those days when it was 99 degrees, and if you didn’t get your run in at 6am or 7am, then you were running at nine or 10pm in order for the temperature to drop. And there was no way I was going to be running in the park at nine or 10pm when I needed to get seven miles in that day. So I did it and I came to work dripping sweat. It was so disgusting. And I have practically a closet of clothes in my office and shoes, so I was like, Great, I’ll just change when I get there. I had to fake shower in the bathroom and wipe everything down, slick my hair back. And I was like, I am going to be the most disgusting girl in the room all day. But that’s fine.

ZOE: So you’ve run four marathons so far? Five?

LAUREN: Four. Last year I did two, the year before that one, and then the year before that one.

ZOE: Would you ever do two again?

LAUREN: Probably not because it sucked the joy out of it a little bit. At least not so close together. I did one in October and one in November. But if they were spaced further apart, I would. But the recovery period, not the physical recovery period, but the mental recovery and motivation recovery period has been so long. I just don’t think that’s sustainable for me. I need one moment of being like, I can’t wait to do this again, but not have to do it again.

ZOE: New York’s your favorite? Because you did Chicago, too.

LAUREN: Yes, I love New York. New York is such a great marathon. It’s so fun. It’s hard, but you enjoy every step of the way. There’s people everywhere, except for some weird stretches on bridges and some parts in Williamsburg. But every other step, you’ve got cheering crowds for you. I spend probably the entire 26 miles borderline crying, not because of pain, but because it’s just such a beautiful, moving moment. Last year or the year before, I was running with a charity that ran in the first wave. And in the first wave, there are a lot of athletes with disabilities. And there was a dad pushing his son in a wheelchair, and I was running next to them, and I was crying, and I was like, Save your salt, save yourself. Do not keep crying. This is ridiculous. And so I was like, I’ve got to pull away. I’ve got to go off my pace and get away from this dad and his son. Because I could not maintain it.

ZOE: I think it’s one of the best days of the year in New York.

LAUREN: It is. It’s beautiful weather, normally. It’s so emotionally moving.

ZOE: When you started running, did you know much about running shoes?

LAUREN: Zero.

ZOE: When I started, I paid no attention. I think back to what I used to run in, and I’m like, What were you doing? I mean, I had no knowledge. I was just out there. But now, I think about it so much.

LAUREN: I don’t think that if you would have said to me the words Hoka or Brooks when I first started running, I would have known what you were talking about.

ZOE: No, and I wouldn’t know the difference.

ZOE: So how did you find your first pair? What was your journey to getting that first marathon shoe?

LAUREN: I did a very scientific approach where I opened up Google, typed in “best running shoes,” and then the first article that popped up, I clicked on the first product.

ZOE: It was like, perfect!

LAUREN: It’s great! So I’m a Saucony girl.

ZOE: And that was why?

LAUREN: Because it was the first one that I tried, and the one I went with was the Saucony Endorphins. I just lucked out that the first shoe that I tried was the one that ended up being my soulmate shoe. Every other shoe that I’ve tried, I do like them for different instances. I love Brooks. I did a lot of training before Chicago in the Brooks. It wasn’t the Brooks Glycerin. I don’t remember which one it was, but it was one of the ones that you recommended. And I loved training in them because my knees didn’t hurt.

ZOE: I remember you saying that.

LAUREN: I love them to death, but then when I wore them for the Chicago Marathon, that’s when I lost my two big toenails. I just got them back.

ZOE: Congratulations. That’s actually a huge accomplishment.

LAUREN: I know. It’s been a full year now. Now I can go get a pedicure without getting shamed out the door. Then I wore my tried-and-true Sauconys for New York a couple weeks later, even though I really hadn’t been training in them. I was like, I know that these ones are my shoes, and I had no problems. But I could have had a sizing issue with the Brooks, which is a common thing.

ZOE: I don’t think that enough people pay attention to the sizing of their running shoes. I really don’t.

LAUREN: You’ve got insight. Tell us.

ZOE: First of all, you have to get fitted. You have to get professionally fitted. I am such an advocate of that. I don’t care how much you know about running shoes. You don’t understand your foot in the way that a professional fitter does. The anatomy of your foot is so complex and intricate. LAUREN: It’s got all these little bones. ZOE: We went to Fleet Feet in the spring, and they had you just stand on this pad, and they scanned your foot, and it created this 3D model of your foot on their iPad.

LAUREN: I would love that. It’s like a personality quiz.

ZOE: Yes!

LAUREN: Tell me everything about me.

ZOE: I was so confused because I was like, Usually when I’ve done this, I run on a treadmill and they take a video, and there was no running involved. And I was like, What is going on here? I don’t think this is going to work. But really, what they’re doing is measuring your foot volume and they’re measuring your pressure distribution — all these crazy little things that I would never in a million years think about. It was interesting because I thought I had a more neutral arch, I thought that I would need a more cushioned shoe, but I didn’t realize that the volume of your foot, like how thick your foot is, makes a huge difference. And they were saying to me, like, Oh, do you get marks on the top of your foot from the laces? I’m like, Yeah. And they’re like, That shouldn’t happen. I’m like, Oh, okay, well, it’s happened to me my whole life. They said, Your feet are thicker than average, so you need a roomier toe box, but not in width necessarily — in height. I was like, This is the craziest thing. That never even occurred to me. And so all of those little things make such a big difference. And I think, everyone’s like, Oh, you should order half a size up. Yes, in some shoes, but in others, you might not have to. And then, what if you need a wide toe box, not because you necessarily have a wide foot, but because you keep losing your toenails? There’s all these things that start to come into play that you have to talk to a professional about. So that’s my number one tip. I think that everybody needs to talk to a professional. And then every podiatrist I’ve ever spoken to in the six plus years I’ve been writing about this, they always say you need to shop at night for running shoes because your feet are so swollen.

LAUREN: Shop at night, that’s such a good tip.

ZOE: No one does that.

LAUREN: Because who shops at night?

ZOE: Exactly. But you need to go right before the store closes when your feet are the most swollen. Because if you’re running a marathon or a half marathon…

LAUREN: Your feet are going to be swollen.

ZOE: Oh yes. Not accounting for that was my biggest mistake when I ran my first 10k. I will never forget. I did not think about it. I was like, You know what? It’s fine. I’ve run a couple miles in these, you know, four or five. What’s a little more going to do? No, it makes a difference, especially because I ran these 10Ks usually in September, early September, so it was pretty hot.

LAUREN: Yes, hot for running,

ZOE: Yes, you have to take that into account. That was a huge mistake that I made. Did you make any big mistakes when you first started?

LAUREN: A lot. Most of them were not even running shoe related. One of the big things that I didn’t know for my first marathon was that you should really start training in June or July if you’ve got a November race. I started training in September. Not the smartest move I’ve ever made. Also, I didn’t understand fueling. That was a big thing. I was like, Oh, you know, I’ll probably eat a granola bar midway through or something. Or even just proactive hydration. But in terms of the shoe part, trying shoes that maybe weren’t the right fit for me, even though they were a half size bigger because I lost my toenails. I say I lost my toenails — I kept them, but they were black and blue. And then they had the other toenail growing on top of it.

ZOE: Exactly, It’s not necessarily always that your toenail falls off, not to be graphic. Other horrible things can occur. Running feet are a whole other level.

ZOE: I think for me, one of the biggest mistakes that I made was tying my shoe so insanely tight.

LAUREN: I think that actually comes a little bit from the dancer.

ZOE: I think that’s true with the pointe shoes. That’s a great point.

LAUREN: I love having tight shoes. Tight shoes make you able to feel the Earth a little bit more, able to feel the ground. When you’re a dancer, you need to feel the ground because your shoes are an extension of your body, not something that is assisting you or helping you. It should feel like it’s protecting you from the Earth. And so you tie your shoes tighter so that you can have mobility and agility. And so, I get that. I totally get it.

ZOE: I’ve never thought about that.

LAUREN: I love shoes that are super tight for that reason because it’s like, Now I feel like I can move. But as a runner, you’re stopping so much blood flow, or your feet are swelling and that tightness is now inhibiting your ability to actually do what you need to do in order to run.

ZOE: Absolutely, I agree with that. That’s so interesting. I never thought about that. I bet that’s why.

LAUREN: Oh, I think about it all the time. I love my feet feeling like they’re getting sucked into a straw.

ZOE: I get that. I’ve had so many moments where I’ve had to stop mid-run and go off and be like, No, this shoe is so tight.

LAUREN: And then if you have one shoe that has a different tightness than the other, I can take a matter of four steps before I’m like, I’m going to throw these shoes into the ocean unless I can get them to be the equal amount of tightness.

ZOE: One hundred percent. So when you’re testing running shoes, now that you do it for our team, what do you do? What’s your process?

LAUREN: I’ll put the shoe on, and then I’ll go for a good base five miles, unless I hate or love the shoe. If I love it and I’m feeling good, you know, I’ll keep going. I’ll keep racking in those miles, collecting those miles. If I hate the shoe, it’s coming off. I’m ending the run early. I don’t need to feel bad about myself. What’s your process?

ZOE: I have a very specific process.

LAUREN: I love it. I love a really specific process.

ZOE: I really hate running outside in a bad shoe. I can suffer indoors, but outside, because I love running outside so much, I don’t want the shoe to ruin my experience. So usually, what I do when I have a new shoe that I’m on the fence about or that I haven’t tried yet, I always bring it to the gym. I bring two shoes to the gym: one that I know I love and I can run in, and then the other that is iffy and new, so I’m trying it. I’ll get on the treadmill, I’ll do a couple miles in the new shoe, and if, by the time my 5k is over, I’m miserable and suffering and I absolutely hate it, I will get off the treadmill and I will put on the other shoes. And everyone at the gym probably thinks I’m crazy and they’re like, What is this? What is this person doing? Especially during Wellness Awards we test about 15 shoes, so every day I’m doing this.

LAUREN: They’re like, What is this girl’s shoe collection? She’s got a problem. Shoppers anonymous.

ZOE: She clearly needs to seek help. And that’s my process, and I love it. And then if it passes my treadmill test, I will use it outside, but not until it passes the treadmill test. Because one time, as you know… you know the story I’m about to tell.

LAUREN: I was going to say, you have a horror story about a pair of shoes.

ZOE: Yes, because this is before my process. This is why I developed the process. I went to the gym and I had new shoes that we were trying for awards on my feet. I was just like, I’m going to go run in them. It’s going to be fine. Oh my god. My feet hurt so much. They were throbbing. I couldn’t even finish the 5K. I got off the treadmill, I took the shoes off and I walked home barefoot because I just couldn’t do it. You know when you’re in heels and you feel like you physically can’t move? That is what this felt like. I was like, I’ve never had this experience with sneakers before, but I need to announce to everyone on our team that you can stop testing these because they were so bad and I’m giving them such a bad score, so they have no chance.

LAUREN: This one was a collective hate. I think it was one of those instances where we’re like, Don’t tell me your thoughts, but I have a pair of shoes that we hate. And then you said it, and then I was like, On the count of three, name the shoe. And we were like, dun, dun. It was a bad one.

ZOE: That doesn’t always happen because we each have different preferences and everybody has different feet. So the fact that we all hated it that much told me something.

LAUREN: When I wore those shoes outside, I was like, I look like a fool because they were very distinct shoes, and it was embarrassing. That’s the squeaky shoe. The design of that shoe felt equivalent to running in a squeaky shoe. I felt so embarrassed. The entire time, I felt like everyone’s looking at me. They’re like, What is this girl doing? She’s not in her normal flow.

ZOE: That was my worst-ever experience. I had one other pair that I wore when I first started running a million years ago. I mean, I honestly think I was, like a freshman in high school. I had run in Brooks since day one. My mom loved Brooks, and I just did whatever she said when I started running because she taught me to run. But I wanted to venture out, and I don’t even remember what I bought, but some other shoe. When I was taking the ACT when I was in high school, I would always run in the morning before because I like to get my body moving. I feel like I have my best days when I start off the day with movement. So then I wasn’t really sweaty, so I just went to the ACT, and my feet hurt so bad during that test.

LAUREN: When they throb and you can feel your heartbeat in your foot.

ZOE: Yes, and I couldn’t obviously take the shoes off. I was in the middle of a 100-person gymnasium taking this standardized test for a bazillion hours.

LAUREN: They’d be like, Who’s the stinky feet girl?

ZOE: Literally. And then I will never forget: I got home, I took the shoe off and, Lauren, the blister was the size of Mount Everest. It was the craziest thing I’ve ever experienced. Even my parents were like, You need to seek medical attention. It had a name. We named it. It was this bad. It was insane. And I think that was a prolonged terrible experience, but the run was good. So I was like, Whatever. But the shoe that we tested, the run was terrible.

LAUREN: That’s why you need recovery shoes.

ZOE: Yes!

LAUREN: Slip on a pair of recovery slides.

ZOE: I’m so into my recovery slides these days.

LAUREN: Which ones do you have?

ZOE: I have the Oofos. I love them so much.

LAUREN: The one my father-in-law loves. He was a trendsetter. He was a hipster. Five years ago, he was walking around their house in Florida going, Oofos, do you know anything about them? They’re the next big thing. And I was like, You fool. You look like a fool in those. And now they’re everywhere.

ZOE: I love them. I ran 11 miles one day, and then I showered, and I was going out with friends, so I put on my nice sandals and they’re hard as a rock. My feet were screaming. And I was like, This is why the Oofos are the best thing on the planet. My feet literally are like, Ahhhhhh. They’re just happy after my run. I love them. You have the Hokas?

LAUREN: I have the Hoka ones.

ZOE: Do you love them?

LAUREN: I do. I wouldn’t say they’re the best thing ever, but when your dogs are barking and you need to take those sneakers off, putting on a pair of cushy, open-toed slides — it makes it the best.

ZOE: I completely agree with you. So your Sauconys are your ride-or-dies?

LAUREN: My Saucony Endorphins, yes.

ZOE: Do you have any other pairs that you deeply love?

LAUREN: Not really. Not from a brand perspective. Whenever we’ve done testing, and I’m doing a little bit of blind testing, like maybe I don’t check the brand and I’m not looking at the logo on the side of the shoe. I’m just grabbing the shoes and putting them on. Every time I’ve ever had a very instant positive reaction to a shoe, I look at the side and I’m like, Duh. It’s a Saucony. It just fits my foot. It just feels springy and light on my foot. I just like the way that I feel in them. Even if I were to get fitted and they’re not the right shoe shape for me, there’s something about the way that they make me feel when I’m running that I really enjoy, and the way that they feel on my foot that I really like. I’ve tried others. I don’t mind the Brooks, but sometimes they’re a little heavy for me. The Hokas are very heavy for me. I can’t do them.

ZOE: I can walk in Hokas only.

LAUREN: There’s some people that absolutely adore them and love them. They’re just not the ones for me. And I think that if you compare a Hoka sneaker to a Saucony sneaker, they look very different, and that’s probably why. I just gravitate toward Saucony’s. I’m trying to think of other ones that I like. I don’t think there’s any others. Chad is so annoyed with me because half of our shoe storage is sneakers. He’s like, Why do you need so many?

ZOE: I had to buy another shoe rack.

LAUREN: I’m like, This is my first marathon pair, so there’s memory. And then this pair is for when I am running on a treadmill, and this pair is my carbon-plated ones. And then these ones are for if I’m doing a long training. He’s like, You don’t need them. Yes, I do. Don’t tell me about fashion, Chad.

ZOE: Oh my god, no. I need all of my sneakers. I love the Saucony Triumphs. Those are my new favorites for distance. I really like those, and I get a wide size, so I size down actually. I do an eight wide, and I love them. And then my new favorite thing is insoles. I am newly an insole person.

LAUREN: Really?

ZOE: Yes. When I went and got fitted, Fleet Feet changed my life. They were like, You should try these insoles. They were showing me the difference between if you take the insole out of your shoe and how it bends. It quite literally gives you no support or adds nothing to your foot. And then they were like, Look at this insole and all the little things that it has, and where it puts a little height on your arch to balance the foot out or whatever. And I was like, Wow, this is actually crazy, how unsupportive the insoles that come with your shoes are. And so then I got the insoles, and I put them in my shoe, and I was like, This is revolutionary. But one of my favorite podiatrists who I always talk to, one of things that she always says, is that it doesn’t mean when you add an insole, you can make a bad shoe a good one. And I think that is so important to remember. The shoe has to be good, and then you’re just adding a little bit…

LAUREN: Of frosting.

ZOE: Yes, exactly. You’re adding frosting to it.

LAUREN: Speaking the baker language.

ZOE: Yes, I love it.

LAUREN: The cake is good, but you add frosting.

ZOE: Exactly. You can’t have a bad shoe and expect an insole to make it better.

ZOE: Let’s talk about pet peeves because this is leading me to a pet peeve.

LAUREN: Yes! This is where you’re going to get nice and hot and bothered. You’re going to be sweating.

ZOE: I’m a little annoyed at TikTok, which you know is not like me because I love TikTok more than anything on the planet. I think that the TikTok running community is a little much, I have to say.

LAUREN: The TikTok everything community is too much, if you get too deep into it. You hear one thing from one person, another thing from another person. But tell me about your TikTok running community pet peeves.

ZOE: I just feel like sometimes the noise is too much. And for people who are getting into running, they think that I’m supposed to run in this shoe because everyone on TikTok tells me to. And it’s like, they’re all getting sponsored, probably, first of all.

LAUREN: Shop my link, shop my link.

ZOE: Yes, exactly. And second of all, your foot is completely different than theirs. That really bothers me. So that’s one of my pet peeves: Just because it’s a popular shoe does not mean it’s popular for you.

LAUREN: That’s how I feel about the Hoka. Everybody that I knew when I first started running was like, Hoka, Hoka, Hoka. And so I thought, well, this is the shoe then. And it just wasn’t the right one for me.

ZOE: Exactly. That’s one of my biggest pet peeves on the planet of Earth because I just think you need to go on your own journey. You don’t need to listen to everybody.

LAUREN: Test things out. I think at Fleet Feet they do this, but most places, when you buy a shoe or try out a shoe, you can go on a trial run for it. And I think that’s really important. Just like if you’re going to buy a car, you need to go and test drive your pair of shoes. Make sure that it works for you and look up the return policy, just in case.

ZOE: Okay, my two last pet peeves. One of my pet peeves is when people wear their running shoes to do weight training.

LAUREN: Oh, yes, we’ve talked about this. This is why I have separate weight training shoes. Just because of you, I keep a separate weight training shoe in my shoe storage.

ZOE: There is someone in my gym every morning when I am running, and they wear the most cushioned pair of Hokas to lift extremely heavy weights. That is so intensely dangerous. You could roll your ankle in five seconds. Please get a pair of training shoes. That’s one of my pet peeves.

LAUREN: And you talked to experts about that. So it’s not just Zoe saying it’s dangerous. It’s expert proven. I think you had an expert say in one of the pieces that you did, or when we were doing Wellness Awards testing perhaps, that it’s better to do it barefoot or in your socks.

ZOE: Yes, because when you’re so high up on that platform, and you’re lifting such heavy weights, and you can’t ground your foot, your whole center of gravity is off. It’s just terrible. So please, for me, for the experts, don’t do it.

ZOE: And then third, and this one really just drives me insane: when people wear carbon-plated shoes as lifestyle shoes. Why? Why are you doing that? First of all, those shoes are $400 and you’re walking through Manhattan in them. Second of all, there’s a carbon plate that you’re just walking around with and it’s doing nothing. It’s literally doing nothing. It makes me sweat. When I see people wearing Nike Zooms and they’re just walking around, I’m like, I’m not going to say anything to you because I’m a nice person and I’m not going to harass you about your footwear choice. But I’m judging you in my brain. I always judge the people in the park on my runs. I’m going to admit it. I look at everyone’s shoes and I’m like, That’s terrible. You’re rolling your ankle. You have no support. You should have gotten rid of those shoes three months ago. But wearing carbon-plated shoes to just walk around? Please, please don’t do that.

LAUREN: I second all of those pet peeves.

ZOE: I’m so glad. I’m so glad we could find this together.

LAUREN: I mean, the fact that they’re $400 walking shoes is just ridiculous. You can get a great pair of walking shoes for 50 bucks.

ZOE: Literally on Amazon. You could get Sketchers. And guess what? They’re great to walk around.

LAUREN: And what’s the thing? You can walk in running shoes, but don’t run in walking shoes.

ZOE: Exactly. Because I think what people have to remember about running is that your body is facing this repetitive stress on your joints, on your muscles. Every part of your body is working. And when you’re in a walking shoe, it’s not built to prevent injury, and it’s not taking that stress off you. So you can definitely hurt yourself if you’re running in a walking shoe, for sure.

ZOE: Thank you for coming to our TED talk about…

LAUREN: I know, like I said, we could go for another hour.

ZOE: We really could. This could be a 17-part series.

LAUREN: Exactly. We would be the ones that are most entertained but…

ZOE: Thank you so much for listening.

LAUREN: Thank you for listening.

ZOE: Bye!

LAUREN: We’ll catch you next time. Bye!

Why trust NBC Select?

I’m a reporter at NBC Select and I co-host our live podcast, For What It’s Worth, with editorial director Lauren Swanson. In this article, I summarize Episode 4: How to choose the best running shoes. I included a summary of the episode, a transcript, products we recommend during the podcast and related articles.

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