Fleet Feet Field Trip

Saturday, Rob’s rugby team signed up last minute for a local rugby tournament which just so happens to be near all the good shopping.  It was supposed to be very warm but rainy so I planned on hitting the stores if was too icky out.  The pitch (rugby field) happened to be really close to the only Fleet Feet in South Jersey too so I dropped Rob off and headed over.  It had been such a long time since I got a new pair of running sneakers.  Most people don’t realize how often you need to replace them and I was definitely due for a new pair.  Seeing as I was going to be right there, I figured I should take advantage of it!

FleetFeetMap
Seriously…

If you have never been to Fleet Feet (and you are a runner), you are really missing out.  It isn’t so much the products they carry (which are great, but often available at other stores too) but the knowledge of their employees.  Fleet Feet is owned and operated by real runners so when you go in and ask for help, they know what they are talking about.

FootMeasureWhen you go in, they do the “Fit Process”.  First, he measured my feet both sitting and standing – the combo of the two tells how strong your arches are.  My foot only had about a .25 different in size which means nice strong arches!  (So I still don’t know why my feet got bigger).  I measured for a 9.5 (taken standing) but ended up buying the size 10 because I wanted to make sure my toes wouldn’t even be close to stubbing in the shoe.

The employee also watched me walk in a straight line to check for “pronation” – basically that is when your foot leans/rolls inward (supination for outward) when you walk.  I was always neutral and still am!  I am just glad to get this all checked, especially after having so many ankle/foot injuries over the last 2 years.

PronationMore on pronation and source of picture

During this time, we also talked about the type of shoes I like too.  I prefer less padding than the typical running shoe – not minimalist but almost.  He noted that I have very narrow feet and took that into consideration also.  After all the measuring was done, he headed in the back and brought out 3 options for me.

Out of the three options, I ended up with Mizuno Wave Rider 17.  I don’t remember the other models but one was too padded near my heel and another was too floppy around my toes.  The Mizunos were narrow enough for my feet but still allowed my toes to move (without the floppy feeling).  They have a bit of a big drop for me at 12mm but they felt good so hopefully they will be what I need right now to avoid injury and get back on the road!

Bonus is that they are super adorable!  One potential downside of doing this whole thing is that the “right shoe” might not be the cutest shoe but I lucked out!  I cannot wait to take them out for a test run!

IMG_20140111_130919

That was a pretty long story just to tell you that I bought new running sneakers so I’m going to stop here and save anything else for tomorrow’s blog!

Have you ever been to a Fleet Feet?  How was your experience?

I have been to the Syracuse, NY one which is apparently well known as being the nicest one in the north east.  It was crazy busy when I was there and I didn’t do the whole shoe-fitting thing so this was really my first time.  I really liked having someone else do all the hard work of picking out my shoes for me!

One a side note, there is a local running store relatively close to this Fleet Feet also.  I went there because I heard they did the shoe-fittings also, but the employees were totally useless.  The person helping me knew nothing about running and I just had to ask “can I try that one on?” just like you would at the mall.  I was disappointed since I was hoping I could support local business.  Hopefully they have gotten better since then (that was 2 years ago).  Fleet Feet still feels like a local business to me too because of the way they operate.

One thought on “Fleet Feet Field Trip

  1. LOVE the new shoes! When I took the dive and got a new pair, I wondered why it took me so long (how ya, the piggy bank haha) I have been to Fleet Feet, I think they do an awesome job

Leave a Reply to kristen Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: