UKH

My climate change monitor is my running shoes. They have been continually wet and muddy for months now. In fact they are starting to fall apart. I cant remember it being this bad for ages. I went to buy some new ones. I cant believe the price! Have I entered a different reality or has something happened to prices of late?

In reply to Slackboot:

They're mostly not made in the UK, and owing to Brexit etc the exchange rate has got bad so imports (of all kinds) have got pricier.

In reply to Neil Williams:

Yes i see. Makes sense I suppose. But begs the question 'what have we done to ourselves?' As a country😕

In reply to Slackboot:

I am size 5, so the size that kids grow out of really quickly. I pick up trail running shoes on eBay for about 15 quid that kids have barely worn and then grown out of! Result! 😃

In reply to girlymonkey:

You're really not making the rest of us happy

[Size 12]

In reply to Slackboot:

The last time I checked, I had 7 shoes* in rotation at the moment. Yes, some of them have been bought in a running store, but most of them are models from last year or some picked from sales. 

* - I don't do crazy mileage, but clocked 1400 miles this year and with 2 race shoes and 2 trail shoes, that doesn't sound as excessive... I try to introduce a new pair before the old one gives me niggles. 

In reply to Slackboot:

I tend to buy running shoes I like, Salomon's or inov-8's usually (although if anyone has a mint pair of Adidas Swoop 2's in size UK 8, I will provide you with many £'s), when they're on offer and save them for such an occasion. 

In reply to Slackboot:

The lack of durability (Inov8 and Salomon my latest shoe failures) and increasing pricing is making hill running rather expensive!

In reply to bouldery bits:

Swoops gone to that place where shoes go "that were just right and then they changed them or stopped making them before you had the sense or thought or luck to buy another pair" ☹

I've got a pair of inov-8 Mudclaw 300s which feel as ok as the Swoops, went for the "classic" (slightly different sole profile?) because they were on offer at the time so £60 from Pete Bland Sports (Kendal) rather than £80 or £90.

In reply to Slackboot:

I'm pleased with Decathlon Kiprun Ultra Light road shoes at £55.  Although with all the rain,  about ready to take up e-sports.

In reply to David Riley:

If it's not raining it's not training!

If it's raining, I'm not training.

In reply to Slackboot:

Adidas Kanadia from the outlet at Pear Mill in Stockport for £25. Over 450 miles in and apart from the mud they’re still very much in the same condition I bought them. Not a rip, tear, flap or sag anywhere..

In reply to Slackboot:

I was told by a foot surgeon to wear supportive running shoes for everyday use (very flexible feet). I get them fitted by knowledgeable people who watch me run in them etc. and hence pay top whack. After I get a good model I order with big price reduction on internet especially once the model is superceded. At least the shop gets the profit on the first pair

In reply to Michael Hood:

Are you sure you haven't strayed into a chandler's shop and have been looking at rowing boats and not shoes?  Just wondering.....

In reply to Slackboot:

Full price shoes have gone nuts, 'last year's colour' (brown, always brown 3 months in) plus club discount makes things slightly more palatable.

In reply to nniff:

You're not the first one with that by about 35 years 😁

My Dad used to be in the shoe trade, a buyer, so he knew loads of the UK shoe manufacturers. When I was a mid-teenager my feet were already too big for the largest "fashion" size, which at the time was European 45 (bit over 10 & half). So I used to get quite upset at not having any shoes that could be considered fashionable.

One time, he got Barkers to make me a pair (not really fashionable but much better than the only clompy rubbish available in a 12 at the time) but I didn't know that he'd brought them home. Came downstairs the next morning to find this pair of shoes with some balsa wood oars sticking out of them.

In reply to girlymonkey:

What sort of parent makes their child go trail running?!

In reply to nufkin:

Er, some kids *want* to go trail running?

In reply to nufkin:

"What you want £HOWMUCH! to buy your character a new hat on Fortnite? Well, if you come and do an easy 5k jog with me over the moor, I'll buy it for you"

The easy 5k turns out to be more like 10k, up hill, in the rain, with a head wind. Traumatized child never does any sport again. Parent sells shoes. Someone gets a bargain on that auction site.

In reply to Slackboot:

On the whole we are paying a lot for branding, advertising and % profits down the line to final retailer, somehow it amounts to £££s on a product that may not suit us (once we have run the first 50 miles) or may fall apart quickly. Personally I think they are a rip off.

Company More Mile seem to produce cheaper shoes and I think sell direct? I had many pairs and would rate them Ok-ish, but at least I didn't cry if they fell apart after a single event (take a bow Sportive). 

I would like to see companies like Alpkit go into the off road shoe market; own branded, sell direct and 50% cheaper than named brands.

In reply to Moley: you can almost always find a shoe on sale somewhere- you just got to shop around.   

If you want your shoes to last get a couple of pairs,  rotate them, especially if they're soaked,  and put them through the washing machine every now and again 

Sports shoes.com always seems to have good deals, as long as you aren't too fussy about brand. I had a pair of asics sonoma for 50 quid, they were ace. 

In reply to dread-i:

That's more or less my recollection of having to do cross-country events at school, which rather put me off running for quite a while. 
I suppose I assume trail running is generally an activity for which one acquires a taste, driven by the assumption that masochism is somehow an antidote to encroaching decrepitude

In reply to nufkin:  not really- I see lots of kids doing it.  They dont associate it with ultras or long distances though..

In reply to Slackboot:

I have been through a number of pairs from the following brands:

On Running, 

Salomon,

Innov8,

Nike,

Adidas,

Karrimor...

I have paid upto £125 for the most expensive (On) and about £25 for the cheapest (Karrimor, which I did Ironman in, and subsequently ended up with a cracking bruise on my foot)

Personaly the best that work for me are Nike trainers, I buy them from Sports Direct and dont pay much more than £40 a pair. I run on the road with them and keep them for 300 miles then change them, they last me a few months and I just keep the cycle going. Ive found both Salomon and On, the backs go in them really quickly and I feel like ive had knee trouble from my On's.

Ive never had Hokas but the two people I know who have hated them.

Adidas always give me blisters.

Karrimor, they were ok but not designed for long distance and resulted in quite bad distress to my ankles.

So yeah, research and development wise they dont get much better (bar all the negative press obviously) and cost wise you can pay from £40ish upto £240 if you want for the Vapour Flys or what ever they're called now...

I run between 10-25 miles a week and compete in triathlon to give you a bit of an idea of my usage.

In reply to Slackboot:

I think it’s a supply and demand issue. 
 

Maybe it’s the circles I move in but running has got very popular, especially with the advent of parkrun. So where before, suppliers had a surfeit of last seasons shoes to get rid of on sale, those shoes go very quickly. 
 

Companies like Nike have contracts in place with retailers to buy a set number of units each season or they won’t supply them. This is one reason why the small independent sports shops are going out of business. If you have to sell 200 pairs of Nike trainers each year you’re screwed. 

In reply to Slackboot:

I've been rotating between Walsh pb about £60and Vj sport max £95 using Walsh for muddy runs and max on rocky runs so for about £150 I've got shoes that can do most ground which i don't think is to much of an outlay 

In reply to Martin Penrice:

Off road and trail shoes always have been half the price of road shoes.

In reply to DancingOnRock:

I've seen some crazy prices for off road shoes especially the new graphine from inov8 suppose they last longer tho . Think it's like everything else more popular it becomes more expensive things get 

In reply to Martin Penrice:

Yes. But that’s top of the range at £140. It would compare with the Nike Vapour Fly. 

The mid range trail shoes are all around £90, compared to road shoes which are typically £130-150.

In reply to DancingOnRock:

You pay £130-£150 for road shoes - what sort of mileage do you do to justify that price?

In reply to Michael Hood:

No. That’s the retail price. Used to be able to get last season’s shoe at approx £80 if I was quick. Problem is too many people are doing that now. 
 

Can get around 500-600 miles out of a pair. At 3 pairs a year that’s too much to pay retail price for. 

In reply to DancingOnRock:

I'm currently in a pair of Asics GT-1000 GTX (think it's version 5) - got the GTX (Gore-Tex) because I happened to find them on offer cheaper than the mainstream GT-1000s (of which I've had 2 or 3 pairs - can't remember) - but they've been great especially when running in wet conditions, through quite deep puddles in the park (just stomp through rather than "daintily" trying to avoid 😁) without feet getting wet, which they would of in the mainstream GT-1000s.

Anyway this week bought another pair of GT-1000 GTXs (version 7) for £66 from Asics own online outlet shop. As cheap as anywhere else with free postage. Hope they're as good as the version 5s; updates to shoes (running or climbing) always cause some uncertainty regardless of the manufacturer's marketing spiel.

I don't run as far or often as I used to so only get through a pair every year at most, but 500-600 miles is good mileage; you must either be light on your feet or running them to disintegration. I used to be pretty pleased if I got to 500 miles; the rough rule of thumb I used to use was 10p/mile but it's probably gone up to 15p/mile nowadays.

In reply to DancingOnRock:

Didn't realize road shoes where that price I've not ran on the  road for a few years now so never really took much notice

In reply to Martin Penrice:

If you find last year's (more difficult nowadays) and shop around you can usually spend much less. My limit used to be £60 (now £70ish) but I'm fairly low mileage with no real gait problems.

If you do high mileage then you need better (i.e. more expensive) shock absorption and if you have gait problems that also tends to lead to more expensive shoes nearer top of the range.

Apologies if I'm preaching to the converted 😀

In reply to Michael Hood:

I’m think of dropping down £30 and buying a less cushioned shoe to see if I really need one. The main difference seems to be the thickness of the tread. The uppers are giving out before the tread wears out so I may be paying extra for something I don’t need. 
 

Aisics Nimbus usually, but I might try the new roadhawk shoe they do for races and drop down to cumulus for training.  

In reply to Slackboot:

father christmas (ie me) has just invested in a pair salomon speedcross 5 for 2020.  my speedcross 4s now have holes which i can put a finger through at the flex points.  speedcross 5 (not gtx) were being sold online for £120 but i found a pair for £80 from the running works. admittedly they're bright red and i've a feeling i'm too old and too slow to sport such a vibrant colour. however, a bit of dirt and they'll be fine!

Scott Kinabalu for £50 on sportshoes.com.  Love them so far

In reply to DancingOnRock:  If you're really going through uppers faster than midsoles then I'd strongly recommend rotating two pairs and washing them fairly often.   Grid, and I'd speculate humic acids. trash wet uppers.  The other big advantage of rotating is that cushioning works better if it isn't soaked in cold water, reducing compressibility - that'll help if you do drop to a les cushioned shoe. 

 Do you normally run on road or on paths?  For a long time I did about 90% of my running off road, Richmond Park or similar,,, what a luxury that was.  Mostly in free Kayano's   I'm lucky now that I usually run in Pegasus that are always cheap somewhere.  I have som Hokas too, but only use them in the winter - they're too soft for me in the summer!

In reply to wbo2:

It’s more that after 5-600 miles the tread is not completely gone but the whole of the rest of the shoe, including the midsole is pretty much finished. I was looking at a new pair yesterday and comparing them, there didn’t seem to be a lot of difference. I think 5-600 is good going for a shoe in any case, most of the stiffness has gone. 
I have trail shoes for off road and cross country, it’s the road shoes that get battered. I’m the summer I wear road shoes on trails. In the winter we still train in the dark but the club runs are on pavement.

I do prefer a more flexible shoe with less bounce and never feel like the shoe is fully comfortable until I’ve done 100+ miles in it. 

In reply to DancingOnRock:

I've been using some Decathlon trail shoes I got for 40 Euros. Done a couple of hundred miles at least so far. Not as grippy as my Brooks Cascadias but fit well and are a bit lighter.

For road, I'm a bit nervous about going cheap. I've had all sorts of injury issues last few years due to "experiments" with lightweight, minimal shoes, forefoot striking etc. I used to by Nimbus faithfully but one year they changed the fit a bit and I've not found a perfect home for my road feet since

In reply to mountainbagger:

Tis always the way. You find the perfect fit but don't get round to buying another pair. By the time you do, they've "improved" the fit, the perfection is gone, and the old version is as common as hen's teeth 😟

In reply to mountainbagger:

I rate Decathlon, recently bought a thumb compass for orienteering, £15, bargain.

Also cheap sunglasses. I was always breaking and buying cheap (around £10) sunglasses, at least one pair per year. Decathlon, £3.99, have 2 pairs (just in case) but neither have broken in maybe 3 years.

In reply to DancingOnRock:

If doing lot of off road try Vj sport they have Kevlar upper can take take some hammer and very good soles really getting more popular in fell running

In reply to Michael Hood:

Agree with you stock up before changes. That's good thing about Walsh keep more or less same shoe for years and years

In reply to GDes:

Saw that it's good price