The Natural Running Symposium took place in October of 2010 at the Maine Running Company. Danny Abshire from Newton Running, Kirsten Buchanan from Impact Sports Medicine and Jamie Raymond from Raymond Chiropractic joined John Rogers to talk about barefoot and natural running in front of a crowd of about 60 people.
Each speaker had their own take on what natural running means and why it is good for us, as well as when it isn’t.
This is part 8 of the presentation, which covers the last 3 minutes before the question and answer session. This also concludes the discussion on the evolution of running shoes and where the industry is going by sharing John Rogers’ opinion on where he’s seen the industry move and why it’s important for the staff at running stores to educate the consumer on how to safely adapt to using the natural and minimal shoes that are now for sale.
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Video Transcription
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John: Okay, well my perspective is that, as I’ve stated earlier, is that the industry has waken up and they’re taken minimalism, natural running and barefoot running.
I think what Newton has done has changed the way the industry is thinking. You’ve got Nike Free. We have Vibram Five Fingers. We have a slew of shoes coming out in spring ’11 that are all going to be geared towards minimalism. We have the Saucony Kinvara. They’re all different, but they’re all moving in that direction.
You’re going to see heel heights, the heel and toe ratio, level off. And you’re going to see designs incorporated into the foot strike pattern to try and force people a little bit more on their forefoot; I don’t know how they’re going to do it. But the Nike Free, the next evolution of that is quite interesting.
So we’ve had minimalism shoes around for years. Racing flats as Danny said. In the 70’s, when we were running, we would always run barefoot. Either on the beach or on the grass for 20 minutes after practice. To what? To help us learn better running form.
So I really think what it’s done is it’s not going to change some of the traditional shoes, but it’s going to evolve those traditional shoes. And you’re going to see new interpretations, and new designs, and new elements put into the new products based on this trend that’s going on.
I think it’s wonderful for the category. I think it’s really helping stimulate it. It’s helping the shoe companies re-think how they look at things, and I think that’s a good thing. I don’t have any reservations about that at all. I can tell you that if we didn’t believe in it, that we wouldn’t carry it. And I know for a fact that we were one of the first running stores in New England that had Newton. Maybe the first, I don’t know. But that’s my take on it.
We’re definitely the first store that had Vibram Five Fingers in New England, and as I’ve said before, we’ve been carrying that product for 5 years.
So our biggest proponent is continuing to educate our staff on how to position it correctly to the consumer. And making sure that they’re educated on the process, so that they don’t get hurt, and that they use it for what it is. It’s another tool in the toolbox to help prevent injuries, produce better running form, and become better aligned. And that’s our take on it.
So it’s an exciting time in the industry, and I’m looking forward to what’s coming out. We even have a barefoot race here in our market. Eric Boucher and the Pineland Farms group, they had 75, 50 people? 60? I was right in somewhere in there.
And next year they’re predicting a fairly large crowd and I think it’s one of the first ones that we had on
the East Coast. So what do you know, forward thinking in Portland, Maine.
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