The primary function of an athlete using correct athletic shoes is to assist in preventing injury and help them run more rapidly. Using an inappropriate running footwear for a runner is considered to raise the possibility for an overuse injury and help to make the running less efficient. Whereas if the proper running shoe was used then there is a lower risk for an injury and the runner is more efficient in the way they run. There is lots of dialogue if the running shoe does actually reach that goal or not. There is not a lot of evidence to support that and what little science there is demonstrates that it might not be a correct assumption that the running footwear may actually prevent exercise related injury. Different running footwear businesses have approached the matter or concern diversely with each company giving up various approaches with various degrees of results. There's an very broad range of running shoes on the market, with each and every brand name and model having different design features that the running shoe retailer should probably match them up to the needs of the individual athlete.

About a year back, Nike produced the brand new Nike React Infinity running footwear  with the strong promises that it may decrease running injuries by 52% and they had research to support that claim up. You must be careful making such health claims about products as they can be and also have been the reason for legal action and also deals with the regulating government bodies previously. As of writing this, the study that supports the claim has not been released for expert critique and all that is available is an abstract of the results of the study. The study was performed by a university for Nike. The research split 226 athletes of all ages and abilities into two similar groups as they were preparing for a half marathon. One group of the runners ran in the Nike Structure that is a standard motion control running footwear and the other group used the new Nike React Infinity Run running shoe. The outcomes demonstrated that runners wearing the React Infinity had a 52 percent lower exercise related injury incidence as opposed to those in the Strcuture running footwear. The users of the React Infinity also mentioned that they felt much less pain in their knee joints and also the feet from the running. These results appear promising, however the data should be put under greater critique prior to it being thoughtlessly believed.

All of these issues are repeatedly challenged and litigated in several places. An episode of the live chat, PodChatLive was devoted to the above concerns. In that show the two hosts (both runners) talked about this issue with Michael Nitschke who's a podiatrist, a great runner and a running coach. In the thread on the message board, Podiatry Arena, there is lots of commentary around the Nike claims with regards to their Nike react cutting down running injury incidence. Because of the number of varying views and viewpoints it is really an dilemma that isn't likely to be fixed any time soon.