Runner’s World Shoe Guide

I bet you couldn’t wait for Runner’s World to do their ‘08 Spring Shoe Guide. After all, they are reviewing twenty-seven new shoes and putting them through a “rigorous testing system”. The test is conducted at the “RW Shoe Lab” where RW states that they “punish hundreds of shoes to see how they performed”, they also asked 350 wear testers from across the US of A to test the shoe for a month. RW states “Runner’s World is the only publication that tests shoes this way. Our goal is to help you find the best shoe for you”.

Ok, let’s dive in and look at the in depth analysis from the scientist at Runners World. The first thing you will notice is that Runner’s World gives a brief blurb about each shoe, what changed, who this shoe is suited for, etc. Runner’s World sticks with the facts, they offer no opinion. They then include two comments from their wear testers regarding each shoe.

There were 54 comments in total, from the “wear testers”, here is how they broke down:

Positives = 35
Positive & Negative = 17
Negative = 2

I was liberal with the negative comments, one was on how the shoe trapped in too much snow and the other one was stating how they shoe took awhile to break in, hardly tough criticism. Also, what kind of conditions are you running in to get snow trapped in the heal of your shoe?

Oh Runner’s World, once again you disappoint me. You brag about your RW Shoe Lab, so where is the raw data? Throw me a chart, some customer survey results, a pie chart, anything that’s scientific. The customer comments are pointless, if 20 people reviewed the shoe, summarize that data, don’t give me two opinions from an average Joe.

I think a great test would be to remove all identifying logos from the shoes and have the wear testers test them, to prevent any bias leading up to the test. I’d love to see Runner’s World conduct a study where each runner is given the ‘07 model (labeling removed) and the ‘08 model, and asked them to review each shoe, without knowing which model is the newer model.

It’s amazing how Runner’s World has an entire lab dedicated to testing shoes, yet they publish no data. I’d also like to know the break down of their “wear testers”, if the shoe is “Recommended for bigger runners with flat arches, who need plenty of motion control” is that who is testing the shoe? Or does Runner’s World just send out any shoe, if that’s the case, there wear testers opinion has little validity. If I’m looking for a performance-based trainer that is catered to efficient, lightweight runners, I don’t want to hear the opinion of a 220lb guy who has a severe pronation problem.

This is only the start of my beef with Runner’s World, more to come…