Mmmm well i guess i should really give them ago before i bash them so fair point.

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Mind over matter!

There was a time Richard, maybe in the 80's/early 90's, when the shoes in question did get high-profile marketing. I think that there was a version that were described as "four-by-fours for your feet..." ! Of course, those were the days when there were relatively fewer models of shoes on the market... and certainly fewer specialist shops where they were sold.
Also, back then, there hadn't been the great surge of new innovations (air/gel/hydro-flow etc...), so there wasn't a huge difference between the Hi-Tec shoes and the rest of the shoes on offer, meaning that they possibly had a more equal share of sales at the time.
Of course as time has gone on the choice has widened, as has the difference in the relative shoe specifications... so the Hi-Tecs naturally got left behind.

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I RUN, THEREFORE I AM

(When I don't run, I'm NOT)

I think there are certain (lucky) people, who can get away with running in anything... I have a friend who's done a few races with me over the past couple of years and has just run in some old squash shoes, no cushioning to speak to at all really - yet he's never suffered with an overuse injury!

I on the otherhand, bought my first pair of running shoes from JJB, and soon developed shin splints, they also soon disappeared after I had a gait analysis and forked out for some Asics Gel Kayano's...

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www.richardsimkiss.co.uk

People did used to run in anything, because there was simply no other alternative. The squash shoes worn by your friend would once of a day have been equal to the most cushioned shoes around! Looking back to when I first started running, there was no such thing as a "running shoe" and we were running in what were, I suppose, football trainers with no real cushioning to speak of. We've definitely been spoiled since those days; even to the point of becoming soft!

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I RUN, THEREFORE I AM

(When I don't run, I'm NOT)

Rich,
I did exactly the same as you - cheap pair of shoes from JJB followed by shin splints as my mileage went up. I went for the gait analysis and fitting too and it was the best thing I ever did. Almost instant recovery!
On the subject of Hi Tech silver shadow, I had a pair of those at school and I seem to remember them being light as a feather and very comfy. they were dead cheap too and quite fashionable for a while. I loved them, but I can't imagine I would trade in my Brooks shoes for anything else now after the problems of the past. Having said that though, when I started running I ran in a cheap pair of white Hi-Tech for years but it was mainly just jogging around trails and fields off road, but I did this for years with no problems. It was when I started a regular schedule for my first race trying to run faster on the roads that the injuries appeared.

I agree with you very much Ped! We're very much pampered nowadays - and I know there's a lot of people who strongly disagree with the nature of todays running shoes that tell our feet how to run...

I can't help but wonder where I'd be now if I didn't manage to get the relief I did from shin splints... I may have ended up giving up! I think/hope that over time - if I work on muscle imbalances and running technique etc - it may help to correct some of my overpronation, and allow me to rely on a trainer with less structured cushioning and run more efficiently.

Perhaps we now need these structured/cushioning shoes as a result because of how we've gotten much bigger and less active as a nation? I can't imagine many runners 'back in the day' being medically classed as obese as many are today (myself included when I started this running malarkey).

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www.richardsimkiss.co.uk

Having done a bit of work (biomechanics assessments) with the British Army in the past, I was shocked at the number of cadets/senior staff who were injured or working with the physios to get fit again.
With the amount of fitness training that the army have to do, I would have thought they would make sure that recruits had suitable footwear. Every single person who was injured was wearing Hi-Tec shoes....
Not wanting to argue with TimeKilla though, his arms looking bigger than my legs!!!

Yeah, I hate the idea of my feet being told what to do!
I've started to wonder if there's a difference in the vulnerability to over-use injury between (for example) two similar-aged runners; one of whom has been a runner since childhood, the other someone who has taken up running as an adult.
... But then again, there are too many variables to be taken into account for a meaningful answer to be derived from the question, I suppose.

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I RUN, THEREFORE I AM

(When I don't run, I'm NOT)

The silver shadow was based on the Brooks chariot.
As for the army giving you the best? Laughable! They give you them because they are CHEAP!

... The original Brooks Chariot was a great shoe (before they started messing around with it in the mid-80's).

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I RUN, THEREFORE I AM

(When I don't run, I'm NOT)