Oct 16, 2025 06:09 PM
https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/critic...ning-shoes
INTRO: Women’s running shoes might be holding them back from reaching their full athletic potential, according to a recent study.
Published in BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine, the paper found that there was “a critical gap in the design of running footwear,” which does not take female anatomy into account.
“Most so-called women’s running shoes aren’t truly designed for women,” first author of the study Dr Chris Napier – assistant professor of biomedical physiology and kinesiology at Simon Fraser University, in British Columbia, Canada – told BBC Science Focus.
“They’re based on a male foot model and then simply scaled down in size and recoloured – what’s often called the ‘shrink it and pink it’ approach.”
But this approach, continued Napier, failed to “reflect the real anatomical differences between men’s and women’s feet, or the way women run.”
As a result, women’s running shoes may not fit their feet properly, and could be hampering their performance... (MORE - details)
INTRO: Women’s running shoes might be holding them back from reaching their full athletic potential, according to a recent study.
Published in BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine, the paper found that there was “a critical gap in the design of running footwear,” which does not take female anatomy into account.
“Most so-called women’s running shoes aren’t truly designed for women,” first author of the study Dr Chris Napier – assistant professor of biomedical physiology and kinesiology at Simon Fraser University, in British Columbia, Canada – told BBC Science Focus.
“They’re based on a male foot model and then simply scaled down in size and recoloured – what’s often called the ‘shrink it and pink it’ approach.”
But this approach, continued Napier, failed to “reflect the real anatomical differences between men’s and women’s feet, or the way women run.”
As a result, women’s running shoes may not fit their feet properly, and could be hampering their performance... (MORE - details)