(Photo by John Hoey https://flic.kr/p/ngQ3fm Attribution 2.0 Generic CC BY 2.0)

By now we are in tapering mode for TMM, less than a week to the race and we are working on nutrition, hydration and thinking about post run celebration.

I personally love exploring running form, and how running can be improved through mobility, strength, technique (such as Cadence) and most importantly Shoes. You guessed right! I am a big shoe geek :-)

I have collected the shoes data from Starva of those who ran ADHM and here are some of the insights. Among the 1900 runners that I looked, only 350 of them have shared their shoe data. So please use your judgement while reading this article.

Nike is the most popular brand and Asics is a tad bit behind

Among the brands used, Nike came out as the top brand with 27% of all runners using various shoe models of Nike. Asics caught up at 26% of runners using their shoe models. Adidas came out third with 16%. Surprising entry is French sports giant Decathlon’s brand of running shoes Kalenji and Ekiden, at fourth position with 5%. Please see the chart for full details.

Top Running Shoe Brands

Nike Air Zoom Pegasus is India's favorite

Of the top 5 shoe models, which make up 35% of all the shoes used in the race, Nike Air Zoom Pegasus series is runners favorite and it represented 28%. Adidas Ultra Boost at 23% and Asics Gel Kayano at 22% are second and third in popularity respectively. At 17% Asics Gel Nimbus is fourth popular. Decathlon Kalenji Kiprun is fifth popular with 10% share.

Top Running Shoes

Top 5 Shoe Models for Nike, Asics and Adidas

Minimalist Shoes are a Small Percentage

Minimalist shoes such as Vibrams, Merrel were worn by 3% of the runners. Among these Vibrams were the most popular with 50% share among them. Other minimalist shoes used were Luna, 361 and vivo barefoot. If Nike Free can be considered as minimalist then Minimalist shoe share goes to 11%. Nike Free will be the dominant minimalist shoe in this case.

Are you a Strava user?

If yes, please tag shoe you used against a run. It is a great way to track your miles by a particular shoe, especially if you want to prevent injuries using the same shoes beyond certain miles. Most shoes have a life of their own between 600-1000km post which they reduce their effectiveness. Further, it is a preferred practice to let a shoe breath, so ideally one can have 2 or more pairs. This will also help one understand which shoe is more effective for intervals and which are best for long runs. You tagging shoes on Strava will also help to see insights like what I did this with this post.

References

• Data that I have extracted for ADHM runners is open for further analysis.

Aravind

Aravind is a techie, running geek, and a marathoner. He is a CrossFit Level 1 Trainer. He loves all things technology and technology in running, with special interest in running form analysis.