Improved footwear comfort reduces oxygen consumption during running

The effect of minimalist, maximalist and energy return footwear of equal mass on running economy and substrate utilisation

“…This concurs with the findings of Sinclair et al (in press) who also showed that energy return footwear were rated as being more comfortable than conventional running shoes. This observation in conjunction with the metabolic data concurs with the findings of Luo et al (2009) who showed that running economy was greatest in footwear rated as being the most comfortable. Therefore, the improved comfort shown in the energy return footwear may give additional insight into the differences in running economy shown between energy return and minimalist shoes.…”

Can subjective comfort be used as a measure of plantar pressure in football boots?

“…The results obtained in this study support the need for a multi-faceted approach. Furthermore, despite evidence for relationships between the comfort, injury prevention and performance characteristics of a football boot (Kinchington et al, 2012(Kinchington et al, , 2011and Luo et al, 2009), it appears that these relationships may not be strong enough to allow any category to be neglected in the assessment of the boot.…”

“…Interestingly, injury protection was one of the lowest scoring desired properties (Hennig, 2014(Hennig, , 2011, despite evidence that overuse injuries and footwear comfort in football and rugby are interlinked (Kinchington et al, 2012(Kinchington et al, , 2011. Not only has discomfort been related to increased injury risk, previous studies have linked footwear discomfort to altered lower extremity loading, which consequently triggered muscular fatigue and thereby decreased performance (Kinchington et al, 2012(Kinchington et al, , 2011Luo et al, 2009). Given the importance placed on comfort by footballers (and the industry in their boot development process) combined with the suggested links with both performance and injury, it is relevant to better understand what objective factors influence comfort perception.…”

Barefoot running – some critical considerations

“…This idea suggests that a runner automatically adapts to a change in running condition or strike pattern to maintain optimal running performance and efficiency. Supporting evidence for this concept comes from a study quantifying global energy consumption where subjects were running in a comfortable preferred shoe and a nonpreferred shoe (Luo et al 2009). It was shown that the runner's preference alone led to a significant (p < 0.05) decrease of oxygen consumption.…”