Image alt text: A runner comparing road and trail running shoes at a specialty store to find the right fit and surface match
The running boom shows no sign of slowing, and the shoe market has followed with thicker foams, carbon-fiber plates, and marketing claims that more technology means less injury and faster times. Some of that holds up. A fair amount doesn’t, and the gap between claim and evidence is wider than most price tags would suggest.
A 2018 study published in Scientific Reports found that thicker, foamier midsoles increase impact loading on the body compared to lower, more traditional shoes, a finding that runs directly counter to what most cushioning marketing implies. A 2025 research review raised the concern that max-cushioned shoes may also increase ACL injury risk. “The science does not support that story,” says Dr. Milica McDowell, a physical therapist and associate vice president of education at US Physical Therapy. “It’s the exact counterargument to what all the marketing says.” That’s not an argument against all shoe technology, but it is an argument for knowing which claims are backed by research and which ones are backed by ad budgets. Here’s what Dr. McDowell and USATF-certified run coach Mike Thomson say.
Matching your shoe to the surface
Before thinking about foam or plates, figure out where you’re running. Road shoes have a mostly smooth outsole designed for pavement. Trail shoes use deeper rubber lugs to grip natural terrain and handle rocks, roots, and uneven ground. “Think of a running shoe as being like a tire,” says Thomson, who coaches at Life Time and got his start on the sales floor of a running store. “If you’re going off-road, you’ve got to have the right tread on the bottom so you’re not slipping around.”
Dr. McDowell’s rule of thumb: a trail shoe can handle road running, but a road shoe can’t reliably handle trails. “You can always street run in a trail shoe, but it’s very hard to trail run in a street shoe,” she says. If you need one shoe for both, the gravel shoe is a growing category designed for mixed surfaces, with toothier tread than a road shoe and shallower lugs than a trail shoe. It won’t handle the most technical terrain but covers a lot of ground.
Both experts also recommend buying in person rather than online. “If they’re not comfortable in the shoe store, they’re not going to break in and be comfortable later,” Dr. McDowell says. “The shape of the shoe and the ground feel are not going to change.”
Why max cushioning may be working against you
The intuition behind max-cushioned shoes is straightforward: more foam between your foot and the ground should mean less impact. The research says otherwise. The 2018 Scientific Reports study found that thicker midsoles correlate with greater impact loading, not less, and a 2025 review linked max cushioning to elevated ACL injury risk.
Part of the reason is neurological. “It diminishes your ground feel, so you start to lose connection with the surface you’re running on,” Dr. McDowell says. “You’re essentially making it harder for your neurological system to manage your running.” A thicker midsole cuts the feedback between the nerves in your feet and your brain, so your body can’t make the fine adjustments it normally relies on mid-stride. “Ideally, you want the minimum amount of cushion to do the job,” she says. The research backs that up.
Carbon plates: performance tool, not everyday shoe
Carbon plates are a different story from cushioning, and the evidence for them in specific contexts is more favorable. In trail shoes, a plate stabilizes your foot over rocky terrain, letting you move across unstable surfaces without losing your footing. “The more technical the terrain, the more I would advocate for somebody to consider it,” Dr. McDowell says. In road shoes, plates provide measurable propulsion gains, which is why they show up in racing and tempo footwear. “If you’re looking for a PR, carbon is one way to get it,” she says.
Where they become a problem is as a daily trainer. A plated shoe does some of the mechanical work your foot would otherwise do on its own, so relying on one for the bulk of your mileage can gradually limit the mobility and strength your foot would otherwise build. “It is specifically designed for performance efforts,” Dr. McDowell says. Most coaches treat plated road shoes as race-day or hard-effort gear and reach for something less assisted for everyday runs.
Why you should get your feet remeasured
A review published in the Journal of Foot and Ankle Research found that more than 60 percent of adults wear the wrong shoe size, contributing to foot pain, corns, calluses, and other largely preventable problems. Foot size doesn’t stop changing when you stop growing in height: body weight, muscle mass, and certain medications can alter the length and width of your feet over time. “If you think you’re the same size that you’ve been wearing since college, you’re probably wrong,” Dr. McDowell says.
She recommends getting measured at a running specialty store at least once a year, checking both length and width. Many brands now offer wide and narrow versions of popular models, so if standard sizing has always felt slightly off, a better option may exist. And the look shouldn’t drive the decision. “One of the things that we always encouraged people not to do was to buy a shoe based on its color or its look,” Thomson says.
The shoe market has gotten bigger and louder, but the underlying questions are pretty stable: what surface are you running on, how much cushioning do you need, and does the shoe feel right in the store. The technology that improves performance is more targeted than the marketing suggests, and the fundamentals of a good fit haven’t changed.
