With the cooler weather I started to dig through the closet for a change from summer to fall wear. Under a shelf on the floor and behind accumulated stuff I found my old pair of wrestling shoes. Then upon further digging I found a pair of old track shoes. The track shoes date back to the late 1950s. Some of the older runners will remember the three stripes on the side, a curved toe box, and a thin rubber sole. How, or why, I still have them is unknown unless I used them as an example when I taught history of sports in an introductory class. It got me thinking about the evolution of shoes for athletics and how the Converse Jack Cramer black high top shoes were the one and only all-purpose shoe for all sports.
For running shoes it started with the wide sole Nike shoe to help prevent pronation problems. Then Brooks came out with a fluid insert in the sole for shock absorption. It took a few years but when the shoe companies realized that there were more women running they modified the shoes to accommodate a women’s foot. New Balance started making shoes that not only included shoe size but also shoe width. That helped runners with a wide foot from having to cram their feet into the standard width shoe.
As running became more popular and more studies about running became available changes were made to accommodate the findings. Terms like pronation, supination, heel striker, toe striker, and racing flats became part of the manufacture of shoes. The soles at the heel had a softer material outside for shock absorption and the inside of the sole was a harder rubber to prevent over pronation. The outside of the sole at the heel that strikes the ground first was usually the first part of the shoe to wear out. Companies added a small hard material to help prevent the wearing off of that part of the shoe. For runners that entered the 5K and 10K races a ‘racing flat’ shoe was developed that had less weight by taking away a lot of the extra shock absorption in the heel and made the sole thinner. I remember the first time I wore a racing flat, the difference between the heel height of a training shoe and the racing flat caused the calf muscle and Achilles tendon to stretch and resulted in a painful walk the next day. The biggest change was in pole vaulting when the pole went from bamboo to fiberglass and the landing pit went from saw dust to deep foam. It is now a different event than the past.
