Like many runners I’ve had my struggles finding the right running shoe. I purchased my first pair six years ago at a local running store. I was diagnosed an overpronator and walked out a few minutes later with stability shoes. I wasn’t surprised. My biomechanics cannot be good. I’m so bowlegged my knees are barely within shouting distance when my ankles are cozied firmly together. Finding the right shoe would be a challenge.
So over the years I’ve tried a lot of different shoes from a lot of different manufacturers. Most were fine for shorter distances. But the truth is in the long run. (There’s actually a lot of “truth” in long runs, but that’s fodder for another day.) I’m continually teetering on the edge of injury or stumbling headlong into it. So I was excited when I first read about Somnio shoes.
I’ll save you the rather lengthy description of the shoes, but here’s their website if you would like to learn more. Basically the shoe’s mechanical properties are customizable and (this part is really cool since no one is truly symmetrical) each shoe can be customized differently for each foot. Your salesperson measures your feet, your pronation (with a special laser-equipped tool), arch height, and learns your running preferences and creates a shoe right on the spot. This appealed to me. Even though physically I am extraordinarily average, getting custom-fitted shoes sounded great. It turns out there’s only one store (for now) in the Charlotte region selling Somnio shoes. So I made the fifty minute trip to Albemarle to visit the nice people at Vac & Dash (seemed an odd name for a running store until I learned they also sell vacuum cleaners… well now at least the name doesn’t seem odd). Albemarle is not where I would have imagined going for some of the newest running shoe technology, but hey, I’m game. Inside I was met by Paige, a charming, helpful salesperson and she set about “fitting” me for my shoes. The first startling bit of information was the discovery that while my left foot pronates a small amount, my right foot does NOT pronate. I’ve been chugging along for years in stability shoes and only half of me pronates! So she chose to put me in Somnio’s neutral shoe, the Runnaissance. She added medium firmness cushioning to the heel and forefoot based on my weight, a minimal (2mm) varus wedge insert to my left shoe for pronation control and footbeds suitable for my arches. She then checked my pronation again wearing the shoes and declared me done. I thanked Paige and Peter (the proprietor), paid my $110 and left eager to try out my new shoes.
My hopes were high. People love their Somnios (some find them heavy, but I’m used to the weight of stability shoes). I was a bit concerned to be suddenly, after a couple thousand miles and three marathons, in neutral shoes. But I put my trust in Paige and the Somnio system. My first planned run after buying them was a fourteen-mile marathon training run. It’s not advisable for your first run in a pair of new shoes to be a long run. But what the heck. I wanted to try them. And it went great. Even though I was hyper-focused on every twitch, tweak, or tweet it went great. Knee issues that have starting cropping up during long runs never appeared. A heel that began talking to me a few days ago felt BETTER after the run. And when the inevitable fatigue set in toward the end of the run, no injury announced itself.
I know it’s only been one run. But so far I am pleased as punch. Thanks Somnio and Vac & Dash.
