Kicksology

Brian Metzler is a freelance journalist who covers running, running gear, and related sports. A running shoe geek since his prepubescent cross-country team days, Metzler has run more than 75,000 miles in his life, tested more than 1,500 pairs of running shoes, run focus groups for several running shoe brands, raced every distance from 50 yards to 100 miles, raced to the top of the Willis (Sears) Tower in Chicago, run a marathon on top of the Great Wall of China, completed two high-altitude 100-mile ultraruns, completed four Ironman triathlons, and regularly races with donkeys in Colorado. Metzler was the founding editor and associate publisher of Trail Runner and Adventure Sports magazines and was a senior editor at Running Times as well as Editor-in-Chief of Competitor magazine and Competitor.com. He has written about endurance sports for Outside, Runner’s World, Triathlete, Inside Triathlon, Men’s Health, and Men’s Journal. He is the author of Running Colorado’s Front Range and co-author of Natural Running with Danny Abshire and Run Like a Champion with Alan Culpepper.

Preface

1 There's No Biz Like Shoe Biz

My Favorite Shoe: Deena Kastor-ASICS DS Trainer

2 Kickin' It Old-School

Six Patents That Changed Running Shoe Design

3 Running Shoe Cool

My Favorite Shoe: Kara Goucher-Adidas Adistar LD spikes

4 Doing What Comes Naturally

5 It's All Fun and Games Until Somebody Gets Hurt

My Favorite Shoe: Dave McGillivray-Hoka Clifton 5

6 Minimalism to Maximalism: A Tale of Two Innovators

My Favorite Shoe: Karl "Speedgoat" Meltzer-Hoka One One Speedgoat 3

7 A Shoe Is Born

My Favorite Shoe: Scott Jurek-Brooks special makeup trail running shoe

8 The Sub-2-Hour Marathon Quest and the Rise of Magic Shoes

Eight Epic Shoe Fails

9 Made to Order

My Favorite Shoe: Jenny Simpson-New Balance MD800 spikes

10 What's Next?

Appendix A: Getting the Most out of Your Running Shoes

Appendix B: Donate Your Old Running Shoes

Acknowledgments

Index

About the Author