Why Cushioned Running Shoes Are Bad for Kids

28/03/2025 Bretta Riches Why Cushioned Running Shoes Are Bad 89

Experts are now beginning to suggest children should avoid constant use of thick cushioned running shoes which are typically very narrow and stiff as these shoes were found to consistently negatively alter running form, especially foot strike pattern, and foot health.

In running, nearly all injuries can be linked to foot strike pattern whereby landing heel-first (heel strike) produces the kinds of impacts and other forms of physical stress that cause most injuries, especially serious injuries, like long bone injuries as compared with landing forefoot-first (forefoot strike – landing on the balls of the foot, not high up on the toes).

Footwear has a direct influence on foot strike pattern in running such that conventional running shoes are primarily responsible for encouraging a heel strike, whereas flatter, more natural footwear, like minimalist shoes, and even running barefoot engages a forefoot strike.

It should be noted that when you watch a child run without shoes, you’ll notice they typically don’t heel strike, they land towards the front of their foot (forefoot strike) because its been confirmed that barefoot runners in general land with forefoot strike, since its verifiably how the foot interacts best when running, especially in the absence of underfoot protection.

More specifically, forefoot striking (shown below) when running barefoot feels most comfortable, even more comfortable than forefoot running in shoes, because forefoot running barefoot enhances reflexive mechanical corrections that results in a higher step rate, a shorter stride and stronger footstep stability.

Ultimately, when forefoot running barefoot, the feet spend more time in the air, and when the forefoot strikes the ground, the foot rolls with the ground in a smoother manner because the little bones in the front of the foot enables the foot to articulate best with the ground than landing heel-first (heel strike) which is the most rigid landing.

Forefoot Running is Better at Preventing Overpronation — Landing forefoot-first when running results in a smoother motion of the foot that produces less jolting, jarring and braking, while dispersing impact pressure on a wider surface area (because of the forefoot is the widest portion of the foot that connects with the ground first), and is fundamentally why forefoot runners don’t show a burst in collisional impact, but heel strike runners do.

A 2011 study published in the AMAA Journal revealed that observing a child’s running gait provides a clear in-sight into the development of the natural gait of human running.

The authors noted that when a child runs in footwear with excessive support features, their running form becomes functionally impaired whereby when children first learn to run, they have a natural tendency to run on their forefoot followed by a flat foot pattern; by the age of 4 and running in cushioned running shoes they have adopted a high-impact heel strike running style.

Comparatively, the best distance runners in the world are from East Africa, and they don’t run with a heel strike as they are typically forefoot runners. Its well known that these runners actually ran barefoot until adolescence and maintain a forefoot strike as adult runners in shoes. Never lose sight of the fact their highly efficient, minimally-injurious forefoot running style was sculpted by years of running barefoot during critical stages of physical development, which is why they are the best at demonstrating proper running form.

All in all, the current evidence does not seem to support the idea that cushioned running shoes improves running form, at any age. There’s actually more evidence for barefoot running as the best help to develop the most sustainablly safe and efficient running form, which is forefoot running. in that light, here are all the evidence-backed reason running barefoot correlates the best with the most improvements in running form and stronger foot health.

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