ÿþI've been following with interest asics trainers a spirited debate that is taking place over on . Like me, Bill is an advocate for greater variety in shoe choice, and his approach on his blog is to poke fun at the status quo in addition to providing the occasional shoe review. He also has published a number of interesting guest posts  is well worth a look if you haven't seen it already."We (ASICS) are now working on a training shoe that is less structure and lightweight, but still offering stability and holding true to a rearfoot srike pattern design.

Not sure where that came from, certainly not me. I beleive some runners should forefoot strike. for example, if one has less than 10 degrees dorsiflexion, which many runners do, that runner cannot achieve heel srtike. But you know what.. humans are very asics running shoes varied, and lots of runners heel strike and run well and efficiently.There is no problem midfoot striking or forefoot striking in an ASICS shoe.. I recommend it all the time, especially if I think a change in form will help. But not to everyone ."Bartold then discusses asics gel kayano that he believes some runners should forefoot strike, and I agree.

Why does the shoe industry feel that shoes with a 12mm (or greater) heel lift are the "gold standard?" If there is no peer-reviewed evidence that these highly-cushioned shoes prevent injury or are more beneficial than zero drop shoes then why is there not more variety out there? If the studies are "still out" on either "minimal" or "maximal" (for lack of a better term) shoes then why isn't there an even representation of both styles on shoe store shelves? It would make sense asics gt 2000 that since you've said yourself that all runners are different and will therefore require different styles of running shoes then there would be an even representation of both "minimal" and "maximal" shoes in stores.

Let's try this then (questions to follow the colon): 1) What is the average heel lift (defined as the height difference in millimeters between the heel and the forefoot) of the top 5 (by quantity) Asics running shoes sold at retail (both online & in stores) in 2010? 2) How many of those top 5 shoes have peer reviewed studies showing their effectiveness at preventing injury or increasing performance? I swear, this whole thing is like a religion discussion where neither side budges because both sides feel they are right. Anyhoo, I don't have a peer reviewed medical journal article to back up what I'm about to write so SB may want to hit that little "x" in the top right corner.

Different companies may give it a spoiler, Foose wheels, HID headlights, or a flashy paint job, but no matter what they do, it's still a Model-T. asics netball trainers If the Asics of the world don't start truly embracing a thing called innovation, then they WILL become the IBM of the shoe industry (as one astute reader stated previously).You mentioned before about a 12mm heel height being ideal? Why is that the standard? *Well, that's a very interesting question because it hasn't been settled on at all. With ASICS we've always worked on a 10mm gradient. That's the difference between the height of the forefoot and the height of the rear foot, so if you've got a cushion type shoe it might be 24mm and 14mm off the ground.