Doctors of Running Podcast · Doctors of Running

#267 Can We Blame Super Shoes for Overuse Injuries?

·1 hr 3 min·4 clips

Corey concludes that super shoes do not cause injuries; training stress and recovery do.

1. Doctors of Running Podcast #267 asks whether super shoes can be blamed for overuse injuries. 2. Matt and Corey Hoffman lead the discussion, and Corey identifies himself as a senior performance engineer at Saucony who oversees fit, physiological testing, and biomechanical testing. 3. The episode is meant to test Corey’s Substack thesis that shoe design changes biomechanics, but injury causation is more complicated. 4. Corey opens with a 2023 paper by Adam Tedforty on five navicular stress fractures in carbon-fiber-plated footwear. 5. Matt immediately frames that paper as a five-case series, not a randomized trial, and warns against broad conclusions. 6. Corey notes that three of the five injured athletes were current or former steeplechasers. 7. Corey also says two of the five had a previous navicular stress fracture, and one athlete returned to a super shoe on a 22-mile marathon-training run after removing orthotics. 8. The conversation then defines super shoes as lightweight racing shoes with super foam, a stiffening agent such as carbon fiber, and geometry that promotes forward motion. 9. Corey contrasts that with super trainers and says intended use matters when classifying advanced footwear technology. 10. Both hosts point out that response to these shoes varies by runner, and biomechanics can change at different speeds even within the same person. 11. Corey then turns to a Becker paper from Oregon that compared runners with a history of navicular stress fracture to healthy controls. 12. The injured group showed about five degrees more rear-foot eversion, which Corey links to the tibialis posterior tendon inserting on the navicular. 13. Matt adds that prior injury is often the strongest risk factor for the same injury recurring, including bone stress injuries. 14. Corey and Matt both note that the Becker data cannot prove whether the altered motion caused the injury or resulted from surgery and rehabilitation. 15. They next discuss a super-shoe biomechanics study from Oregon that tested elite athletes at marathon pace, around a 2:30 marathon level. 16. Corey says the Nike Next% produced a larger range of rear-foot motion than the New Balance Minimus, but not greater eversion or greater joint torque. 17. Matt pushes the argument toward velocity, saying pronation speed and eccentric load may matter more than the total amount of motion. 18. The tone stays collegial and technical, with both hosts interrupting, clarifying terminology, and comparing lab evidence with real-world runners. 19. Listeners interested in running biomechanics, shoe design, and injury prevention will get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners wanting a simple yes-or-no answer on super shoes and injuries may skip it.

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