Running shoes, lifespan and rotation, an update

I’ve previously indicated what I thought about the widely recommended 300-500 miles for running shoes before replacement: hogwash! I’m still waiting to see a supporting study. Now, there have been studies on the cushioning of soles and the number of miles before the spring function of the cushion degrades to, I suppose, some less- or non-functioning state. But, that begs the question and the search for studies on whether this cushioning is needed. We are born to run—on bare feet.

In any case, at least for my running, the recommended replacement mileage is just hogwash! Back in July 2020, in my post on shoe rotation, I showed the following photo of my then five shoes that I was rotating through and their respective years in usage and mileage.

Now, two and a half years later (as of December 31, 2022), they are all still in use, joined by two more. The bottom row of five shoes in the following photo is arranged in the same order as that of the photo above. The top row shows one new Merrell Trail Glove (my second pair and still all-around favorite!) and one de-mothballed Vibram FiveFingers (more on that later).

                                        * Includes two mothball years, so actually 4^th year of use.

In these two and a half years, I’ve run 664, 484, 578, 495, and 613 miles, respectively, in the bottom five shoes. Even the Merrell Vapor Glove, of which I’d tweeted my disappointment back then (https://twitter.com/dragonabs1/status/1274759976972582913), is at 648 total miles now. I ran almost 600 miles in the Merrell Trail Glove in 2022, in its first year, because I used it for most long and/or trail runs.

Each run does, of course, wear out a bit the soles of the shoes, more in some parts than in others. I use, routinely, Shoe Goo to level up the worn-out parts and, as needed, duct tape for more extensive “shoe recovery” after long runs.

Regarding that de-mothballed Vibram FiveFingers: I put it back into my shoes rotation in mid-2022 and ran 45 miles in them. Previously, I’d run in them mostly during 2017-2018, added another 55 miles in 2019, and then mothballed it. In my “Vibram to ductbram” post, I’d half-jokingly wrote that, if I de-mothball all of my previously retired shoes, I may never need to buy another pair. It looks now more like quarter-jokingly.

(NB: I’ve zero relationship with any of the manufacturers of products mentioned in this post.)