A Guide to Your First Pair of Running Shoes — and the Second One

Publication date

19 Oct 2025

Estimated reading time

16 min read

Many of my friends who start run­ning ask me the same thing: which shoes should they buy? So here’s every­thing I usu­ally tell them, all in one place.

The cur­rent snap­shot of my shoe rota­tion, which is mostly based on this theory can be found on the Gear page.

The sim­plest answer

Nike Pega­sus. Just go and buy one.

There are many cat­e­gories of run­ning shoes, each designed for a par­tic­u­lar pur­pose. But the most impor­tant one is the daily trainer — the jack of all trades, master of none. A shoe designed to serve most run­ners on most of their runs. The pair you put on when there’s no tar­geted work­out, no inter­vals, no speed­work — just a run.

Daily train­ers are usu­ally not very expen­sive, and you can almost always find a pre­vi­ous-season model in a dis­count store for much less.

The Nike Pega­sus series has long been con­sid­ered the indus­try’s “default” daily trainer — the gold stan­dard of its class. It’s been around for decades, and it’s con­sis­tently com­fort­able, durable, and ver­sa­tile, making it a safe and solid choice for nearly any runner.

Nike „refines” the Pega­sus every year — small adjust­ments, mate­r­ial updates, design tweaks — but the under­ly­ing idea stays the same. Until you learn your own pref­er­ences, it’s best to start with this clas­sic.

And they usu­ally look the most casual of all (well, after „On Cloud”) — some­thing you can wear straight from a run to a super­mar­ket with­out look­ing like you’re in sports gear.

Daily train­ers

Once you’ve worn out your first pair or simply want to explore alter­na­tives, here’s how other brands inter­pret the idea of a daily trainer:

• Asics: Cumulus
• Mizuno: Wave Rider
• Saucony: Ride
• New Balance: 880
• Hoka: Clifton
• Brooks: Ghost
• Puma: Velocity Nitro

How do you choose the one that fits you?

The main rule is simple: the best run­ning shoes are the ones you actu­ally want to run in. Every­thing else is sec­ondary. If the objec­tively “top-rated” pair with glow­ing reviews feels unin­spir­ing — it’s a bad shoe for you. Con­versely, if the pair seems wrong on paper — heavy, black, high drop — but you put it on and imme­di­ately feel joy and the urge to head out the door, that’s a good shoe.

So for your first pair, focus on two things: com­fort and beauty. Go to a spe­cial­ized run­ning store with as many brands as pos­si­ble and a tread­mill for test­ing. Try dif­fer­ent daily train­ers and pick the one that feels best on your foot and pleases your eye.

Slightly dif­fer­ent daily train­ers

From this point, there are two direc­tions we can slightly branch into while stay­ing within the realm of daily train­ers: more cush­ion­ing and more sup­port.

More cushioning

In all the time I’ve been run­ning and study­ing the topic, I haven’t found a single con­vinc­ing reason to use shoes with extra cush­ion­ing. But I’ve seen plenty of good rea­sons to stay away from them.

There’s no solid evi­dence that increased cush­ion­ing improves per­for­mance or helps pre­vent injuries. For most run­ners, more foam doesn’t make run­ning more eco­nom­i­cal — in fact, overly soft mid­soles can waste energy by absorb­ing and dis­si­pat­ing mechan­i­cal rebound instead of return­ing it. And in a large ran­dom­ized con­trolled trial no dif­fer­ence in injury rates was found between “soft” and “firm” mid­soles.

There are, how­ever, a few sit­u­a­tions where highly cush­ioned shoes might make sense: if you’re a heav­ier runner, or on slow recov­ery days when you want a bit of psy­cho­log­i­cal com­fort.

Very soft foams can reduce the per­ceived impact, which can feel nicer during easy runs — but objec­tive impact met­rics (like impact peak or load­ing rate) drop only mar­gin­ally.

Anyway, fol­low­ing the same logic as before — if these shoes feel com­fort­able and look good to you, there’s no reason not to try them as well.

• Nike: Vomero (or Invincible)
• Asics: Nimbus
• Mizuno: Wave Sky
• Saucony: Triumph
• New Balance: 1080
• Hoka: Bondi
• Brooks: Glycerin (or Ghost Max)
• Puma: MagMax NITRO (or Magnify)

More support

Tra­di­tion­ally, sup­port (or sta­bil­ity, motion con­trol) refers to increased stiff­ness in the medial side of the mid­sole, meant to limit exces­sive prona­tion — the inward roll of the foot after land­ing. Man­u­fac­tur­ers achieve this through design fea­tures such as: denser foam inserts in the medial area (dual-den­sity EVA, medial post), guid­ing frames (GuideRails, 3D Guid­ance Frame, etc.) or rigid clips around the arch or heel.

Research shows that match­ing shoes to foot type (neu­tral vs. pronated) does not reduce injury risk. In fact, rigid cor­rec­tion — includ­ing medial posts — may shift load to other struc­tures and increase the risk of overuse else­where.

Jay Dicharry, in Anatomy for Run­ners, makes the same point: strict cor­rec­tion of prona­tion inter­feres with the foot’s nat­ural adapt­abil­ity and may raise ten­sion higher up the chain — in the knee or hip. Sup­port doesn’t fix the root cause — weak or poorly coor­di­nated mus­cles — it only hides it.

Since the early 2020s, brands have been moving away from rigid inserts, rely­ing instead on mid­sole geom­e­try and side­wall height to guide motion.

Return­ing to our main idea: the best injury pre­ven­tion is a shoe that feels nat­ural and com­fort­able. Modern “sup­port” fea­tures are largely neu­tral in effect, so there’s no reason to avoid or seek them — choose based on com­fort and design, not the sta­bil­ity/sup­port label.

That said, sup­port models are usu­ally heav­ier (by about 20–40 g com­pared to stan­dard daily train­ers). Still, Mizuno Inspire was once one of my favorite pairs — simply because it felt excep­tion­ally com­fort­able.

• Nike: Structure
• Asics: GT-2000 (or cheaper GT-1000)
• Mizuno: Wave Inspire
• Saucony: Guide
• New Balance: 860
• Hoka: Arahi
• Brooks: Adrenaline GTS
• Puma: ForeverRun Nitro

More support + more cushioning

And then there’s a crea­ture that com­bines both extra sup­port and extra cush­ion­ing — usu­ally the heav­i­est of all. I’d stay away from those. Here they are:

• Nike: InfinityRN
• Asics: Kayano
• Mizuno: Wave Horizon
• Saucony: Hurricane
• New Balance: Vongo
• Hoka: Gaviota
• Brooks: Glycerin GTS

Dig­ging deeper

Other key char­ac­ter­is­tics to con­sider are drop, weight, and toe box shape — the latter two often influ­ence how a shoe feels and behaves more than the adver­tised “tech­nol­ogy” or brand mar­ket­ing.

Drop

Drop is the dif­fer­ence in height between the heel and the fore­foot. Most modern run­ning shoes have a drop of 8–12 mm, mean­ing the heel sits higher than the toe. Orig­i­nally, this design aimed to reduce stress on the Achilles tendon and calf mus­cles, but it also slightly shifts pos­ture back­ward and encour­ages heel strik­ing.

Jay Dicharry, in Anatomy for Run­ners, argues that a large drop isn’t nec­es­sary for a healthy runner: it dimin­ishes the nat­ural func­tion of the foot and makes move­ment less effi­cient. A lower or zero drop, on the other hand, acti­vates the calves and Achilles, let­ting the body use tendon elas­tic­ity — though it requires grad­ual adap­ta­tion.

In gen­eral, drop doesn’t make a shoe “right” or “wrong.” It simply redis­trib­utes load: a high drop offloads the Achilles but stresses the knee, while a low drop does the oppo­site. The best choice is the one that feels nat­ural and doesn’t cause dis­com­fort.

For most run­ners, an opti­mal range is 4–8 mm, lean­ing toward the lower end. This level doesn’t inter­fere with gait mechan­ics and requires no adjust­ment period, making it a safe choice for every­day run­ning. Most daily train­ers sit above that range — but that’s not a seri­ous prob­lem.

• Nike Pegasus 41: 10mm
• Asics Cumulus 27: 8mm
• Mizuno Wave Rider 29: 10mm (previous models – 12mm)
• Saucony Ride 18: 8mm
• New Balance 880 v15: 6mm
• Hoka Clifton 10: 8mm
• Brooks Ghost 16: 12mm
• Puma Velocity Nitro 4: 10mm

Weight

The more mileage I run per week, the more I notice shoe weight. It’s simple: the heav­ier the shoe, the less I want to put it on. Extra grams make the shoe feel like shack­les, and every ten grams matter.

This is some­thing you only real­ize in com­par­i­son — by rotat­ing between dif­fer­ent pairs you already own. And it’s almost impos­si­ble to judge in the store: what feels fine during a short try-on can start feel­ing heavy after a week or two of run­ning.

Because of that, I pay close atten­tion to the offi­cial weight listed by the man­u­fac­turer and avoid models exceed­ing my per­sonal upper limit. It’s a small detail that makes a big dif­fer­ence over time.

Toe box shape

The toe box shape directly affects run­ning sta­bil­ity. Jay Dicharry, in Anatomy for Run­ners, writes that sta­bil­ity begins with allow­ing the foot to move nat­u­rally: the toes must be able to spread, and the big toe should press into the ground to main­tain bal­ance. When the toe box is narrow, the foot loses mobil­ity and can’t per­form its sta­bi­liz­ing func­tion.

Most main­stream run­ning shoes from major brands — includ­ing nearly all the models men­tioned above — have toe boxes that are too narrow, effec­tively squeez­ing the toes together like mild foot bind­ing.

A simple way to check width fit is this: remove the insole and stand on it barefoot. Your foot should fit entirely within its out­line, with­out hang­ing over the edge. If your toes extend beyond the insole, the shoe will restrict nat­ural move­ment and reduce sta­bil­ity.

Together with weight, this is the main factor I look at when buying shoes.

For me, Adidas per­forms the worst in this regard — their shoes con­sis­tently squeeze my toes, so I’ve excluded them entirely. Saucony also tends to press the toes until cal­luses form, and Brooks isn’t much better. Nike is tol­er­a­ble. Among all the major brands, Mizuno and Asics fit me best — they give my toes space to move nat­u­rally.

Sole flares

Another aspect worth notic­ing is sole flares — the way the out­sole extends slightly out­ward at the fore­foot or heel.

I’m a strong advo­cate for them. When it comes to sta­bil­ity, these flares can com­pletely change how a shoe feels under­foot. They pro­vide a sense of ground­ed­ness and con­fi­dence, replac­ing that uneasy “rolling off the edge” sen­sa­tion that some­times leads to ankle twists. A well-designed fore­foot or heel flare doesn’t make the shoe stiff — it just broad­ens the base of sup­port, let­ting you relax into each step instead of con­stantly cor­rect­ing your bal­ance.

See Arch Support for Runners: What, How and Why or Footwear Science: Sole Flare

Sidewalls

If you have even a hint of a low arch, pay close atten­tion in the store to how your foot inter­acts with the inner side­wall of the shoe. That soft foam wall rising from the mid­sole can some­times press into the arch area instead of sup­port­ing it.

I’ve returned two pairs for exactly this reason — the inner side­wall dug into my foot and caused a blis­ter. Yes, Hoka. It’s a subtle but crit­i­cal detail: even if the cush­ion­ing and fit seem per­fect at first, dis­com­fort in that area tends to amplify with dis­tance. A good shoe should cradle the arch, not press against it.

Size

You often hear the rule that you should buy run­ning shoes half a size up from your normal size. During a run, the foot swells and expands — on long runs, a shoe that’s too tight can quite lit­er­ally cost you a toe­nail.

On the other hand, some run­ners prefer their true-to-size fit: over­sized shoes can slap against the ground like clown shoes, feel unsta­ble, and add unnec­es­sary weight.

You can often ask a store spe­cial­ist for help — they’ll mea­sure your foot, check how much space you have in the toe box, and sug­gest the right size based on both length and width.

Find­ing the right size comes only with expe­ri­ence, but as a safe bet, go half a size up. It’s usu­ally enough to give your foot space with­out com­pro­mis­ing con­trol.

Tongue

There are two aspects of the tongue I pay atten­tion to: how gus­seted it is and how padded it is. A stan­dard tongue is thick enough to pro­tect the foot from lace pres­sure — pre­vent­ing the laces from dig­ging in. But this adds weight, so racing models often have thin, flat tongues. Some­times that’s fine; some­times it’s unbear­able.

The second aspect is attach­ment. A tongue can be either free (con­nected only at the distal edge) or gus­seted, stitched in place or anchored to the mid­sole by a flex­i­ble fabric. A gus­seted or semi-gus­seted tongue pro­tects from debris and helps pre­vent migra­tion inside the shoe.

The ideal option is a semi-gus­seted, medium-padded tongue. Thick­ness often changes year to year within the same model. For exam­ple, Pega­sus may have a thin tongue one year and a thick one the next. But whether the tongue is free or gus­seted tends to be brand-depen­dent. Altra, for instance, uses a free tongue, and in Torin modle it’s also thin — the worst of both worlds for me.

Color

Every­one knows the rule — red or pink shoes make you faster, black ones feel as heavy as cast iron, and white ones as light as air.

Second pair

It’s often said that there’s no research link­ing injury pre­ven­tion to drop height, cush­ion­ing level, foam type, or sta­bil­ity fea­tures. But there is research show­ing a reduc­tion in injury risk when run­ners rotate between sev­eral dif­fer­ent pairs of shoes.

That’s why it makes sense to buy your second pair right away, with­out wait­ing for the first one to wear out. It can be another shoe in the same cat­e­gory — just a dif­fer­ent brand. For exam­ple, Pega­sus and Saucony Ride, or Asics Cumu­lus and Mizuno Wave Rider. You can focus on making them as dif­fer­ent as pos­si­ble in one key para­me­ter, like drop. Or you can pick your second pair from the sta­bil­ity/sup­port cat­e­gory.

Speed pair

If you’ve started racing or are moving in that direc­tion, you might want to add a faster model to your rota­tion. In my mind, there are two main kinds of “speed shoes”: low-cush­ioned and high-cush­ioned with a stiff­ener.

Low-Cushioned

These are light­weight shoes with min­i­mal cush­ion­ing, strong ground feel, and a small drop. It’s a dis­ap­pear­ing cat­e­gory — the indus­try pen­du­lum is now fully swung toward extreme cush­ion­ing. I use such shoes for short, fast inter­vals, when it’s pleas­ant to feel the ground and let the foot work actively.

In the past, models like Asics Noosa Tri, Asics Evoride, Saucony Kin­vara, or Hoka Rincon belonged here. But even these have grad­u­ally gained more foam, so at this point the cat­e­gory almost exists only in my imag­i­na­tion.

High-Cushioned

This is what’s now often called a super­trainer — a shoe sit­ting between a clas­sic daily trainer and a full racing super­shoe. Almost like a carbon-plated racer, but more restrained. Instead of a carbon plate, it uses plas­tic or fiber­glass; the foam isn’t fully PEBA but mixes it with EVA for dura­bil­ity; and the upper is built from less frag­ile, more prac­ti­cal mate­ri­als.

For years, the bench­mark here was the Saucony Endor­phin Speed. Other good exam­ples include Adidas Adizero Boston, Asics Magic Speed, Nike Zoom Fly.

I per­son­ally use Mizuno Neo Vista for this cat­e­gory, although they are not so fast.

The mud pair

Every­one needs a pair of bad-weather beat­ers — shoes you can take out in heavy rain and ankle-deep mud with­out think­ing twice. Prefer­ably black :)

Most often this role is filled by trail run­ning shoes, but unless you run tech­ni­cal trails, you can easily manage with a reg­u­lar road pair. Still, trail shoes do have their appeal — they’re often beau­ti­fully designed, and they offer a few advan­tages: a stick­ier out­sole for trac­tion, a rein­forced struc­ture for pro­tec­tion from sticks, rocks, and debris, and gen­er­ally tougher mate­ri­als over­all.

A sales assis­tant might sug­gest a Gore-Tex ver­sion. Per­son­ally, I think that’s overkill — you’ll just end up with sweatier feet. A water-repel­lent coat­ing and slightly more robust upper, like the old Nike Pega­sus Shield, are more than enough.

For some run­ners, even a second reg­u­lar pair — just one they don’t mind get­ting dirty — is per­fectly suf­fi­cient.

The minimalist pair

This is actu­ally my favorite cat­e­gory — the min­i­mal­ist shoe. Little to no cush­ion­ing, zero drop, and a toe box as wide as pos­si­ble. I wear them on easy days, or when I feel par­tic­u­larly strong or adven­tur­ous.

There’s some­thing deeply sat­is­fy­ing about run­ning in them — the direct con­tact with the ground, the free­dom of the foot work­ing nat­u­rally, the aware­ness of every phase of the stride. Atten­tion inevitably shifts inward, toward the body, its rhythm, and its bio-mechan­ics. It’s a more present way to run.

It also allows you to step out­side the daily rou­tine while still remain­ing within it — a small act of rebel­lion that doesn’t require chang­ing any­thing. A quiet reset: the same route, the same weekly plan, yet an entirely dif­fer­ent expe­ri­ence.

And beyond that sen­sory plea­sure, there’s theory to sup­port it: these shoes are said to make the foot stronger — not by design, but by demand­ing that it does the work itself.

It’s not easy to find a pair in this cat­e­gory. You can look into models like:

• Altra Escalante
• Some models from TOPO Athletic
• Maybe some Xero shoes
• Vivobarefoot Primus Flow
• Or even sandals

Cool addi­tional links

https://runfaq.com/buyers_guides — Run­ning Shoes Schemes: visual line­ups and cat­e­gory maps for every major brand.

https://runrepeat.com/catalog/running-shoes — Run­Re­peat: an exten­sive data­base of run­ning shoe reviews with detailed specs and mea­sure­ments for each model.

https://www.doctorsofrunning.com/ — Doc­tors of Run­ning: in-depth, expe­ri­ence-based reviews and bio­me­chan­i­cal analy­sis from a group of phys­i­cal ther­a­pists I trust.