Per Aspera Ad Astra

I don't think this is even relevant to Hoka. The study compared two identical shoes, except for the heel insert, which was 15% softer in one version (that isn't very much - I don't have the numbers, but its probably not even close to the difference b/w a Hoka-type shoe and a standard trainer).

So there was essentially zero difference between the shoes for anyone not directly heel striking. And the chances of seeing an overall statistical difference between the groups, no matter how much you try to control as much as possible, are very slim to begin with.

I would say their conclusion should be: "Some people get hurt in cushioned shoes, some people get hurt in less cushioned shoes. A lot people get hurt no matter what. Some don't no matter what they wear. Hurray, we got a publication that told us what we already knew."

Oh, hah, looked up the study and it is just the heel that is stiffer or softer. Definitely a bit of a misrepresentation there. But still, softer heels (and virtually everyone heel strikes) did nothing to reduce injury. Moral of the story is to not be overweight.

Yeah, I know how they do these studies. Its a small heel insert that they swap out. You can't tell the difference unless you know what you're looking/feeling for.

Of course being overweight or training errors is going to have more to do with injuries than anything else. But no one wants to hear that. I hate these studies because the average person isn't going to take the time to actually look up even the abstract, and just buy whatever anti-shoe agenda the particular columnist is pushing.

Cushioned shoes aren't bad. Less-cushioned shoes aren't bad either. But that's not an article tagline worth publishing.

My intuition has always been that cushioning doesn't really matter. If you have less cushioning, you adapt. If you have more, you adapt. The big problem would be suddenly changing between drastically different shoes. Shoes don't really matter all that much, and I just find it silly for overweight runners to shell out hundreds of dollars for gimmicky shoes when the best way to avoid injury is just to lose weight.