Dear the version of me who buys new running shoes every time her feet hurt instead of asking why they hurt,
I need to talk to you about the drawer. You know the one — bottom of the closet, four pairs deep, each one bought in a slightly different moment of foot-related desperation over the last two years. The cushioned ones you got after the shin thing. The “minimalist” ones a running forum talked you into that you wore twice. The ones on major clearance that were half a size off and you decided that was fine, actually, it’s fine, break-in period, et cetera. You know it wasn’t fine.
Here’s what I’ve figured out since: buying a new shoe was never actually the fix. It was the thing you did instead of the fix, because a new shoe is a purchase you can make in ten minutes and a real gait or mileage problem is not. I’m not saying this to be smug about it — I did it four separate times before it clicked — I’m saying it because you’re about to do it again this week and I’d like to save you the money.
What actually helped: going into fall training with one shoe, not a rotation of confusion, and picking it for a specific reason instead of a sale price. I ended up looking at Athletic Propulsion Labs — APL (yes, affiliate link, doesn’t change your price, just sends a small thanks my way) — because their TechLoom line is the one people who actually log real mileage keep mentioning, not just the people posting outfit photos in shoes they’ve worn to brunch twice. Their fall lineup this year leans into that new Veil model too, which is apparently built around the idea that the shoe should disappear on you instead of announcing itself, which — after four years of shoes I was constantly aware of — sounded like exactly the problem I’d been trying to solve.
You’re going to want to buy this because it’s a “better” shoe. Don’t. Buy it because you’re finally going to stop treating a shoe purchase as a substitute for actually dealing with the fact that your left ankle rolls slightly on tired miles and no shoe, however expensive, is going to fix that by itself. The shoe is maybe 30% of the equation. You’ve been acting like it’s 100%.
Also: sign up for their text alerts before you buy anything. Ten percent off for signing up for texts you’ll mute within a week is still ten percent, and future-you will not judge past-you for taking the free ten percent, unlike several other financial decisions we don’t need to revisit here.
One shoe. One reason for buying it that isn’t “my feet currently hurt and this is the fastest thing I can do about that.” Retire the drawer, or at least stop adding to it. You’ll know in about six weeks whether it actually worked, and if it didn’t, fine — but at least it’ll be a real answer instead of another pair joining the other four in doing nothing except making you feel like you tried.
Love, and mild exasperation,
Future you