I have occasionally recommended ‘Active Feet’ to people in the past because other people had told me of their good experiences but today I finally got to see for myself and wanted to share my thoughts. I should start by saying, in no way am I affiliated with Active Feet!
Active Feet is a sporting shoe shop. They have treadmills in the store and all the normal brands of sports shoes you would see elsewhere. Their stores are both owned and run by sports podiatrists which is one of the reasons I decided to visit there today. Another reason for my visit today is that I signed up for a 12km trail run for April which has meant an increase in my running distance and speed. Long story short mix increased running with old shoes = injury (silly me!). I have ended up with a bit of a muscle strain, nothing serious but I thought while I was in the area I should go check out Active Feet and see if they can fit me in a more suited shoe.
I was kindly greeted as I entered the store and the podiatrist listened patiently as I explained (in a circular kind of fashion) the history of my bodies aches and pains and what was currently going on in my lower leg. I sheepishly described the shoes I was currently wearing which were some old Brookes Adrenaline shoes with Kumfs branded inserts for a bit more medial and lateral arch support, to my surprise there was no snickering or judgement made, just more listening and nodding, this was refreshing!
Next they asked some follow up questions about the pattern of pain, whether I was wearing orthotics outside of my running (which I do), why I don’t wear my orthotics when I run (because I get blisters), if I will do anything else in the shoes or if they will purely be for running (they will just be for running) and why do I know so many anatomical terms (because I am a Myotherapist). They were seemingly pleased with my answers and soon arrived back from the storage room with about 5 different boxes of shoes!
They wanted to see me run in a Brookes Adrenaline first because that’s what I had been using, even if it was a slightly modified version. It’s kind of cool when you run on their treadmills because you can see the back of your feet and ankles as you run, I played the fun game of trying to guess if the shoe was good for me or not to see if maybe I’d make a good podiatrist. I don’t know how, but they could tell me so much about my feet and my run, amazing stuff, I was impressed, and FYI, I am going to stick to being a Myotherapist for the time being, their knowledge of feet and running put me to shame, as it rightfully should!
The Adrenalines were reasonable but they also wanted to see me in a neutral shoe to see what my run pattern would be like without all the support, then they picked up that the problem was more at the rear of the foot rather than the mid foot so I tried on another shoe, then we went back to the Adrenalines to compare both feel and postural performance. We decided the Asics were the best, I thought we were all done, but no! Next I had to take them for a spin outside. The podiatrist wanted to see if my run pattern would change when pushing off the ground something you don’t get on the treadmill. Apparently it did change so we tried one more option which we both simultaneously decided we hated and settled on the Asics shoe.
So I am now the proud owner of a pair of black/glittery Asics that I am very psyched to get out and try, just have to wait for the leg to heal a bit more first though. Also, be prepared that next time you mention sport, pain and shoe to me, I am probably going to tell you to go into Active Feet, they even gave me a referral pad today so look out!
As usual, if you have any questions, please drop me a line and if you have had a good/bad experience with Active Feet or any other sport shoe company we’d love you to share!