ÿþI've been following with interest a spirited debate that is taking asics gel lyte place over on . Like me, Bill is an advocate for greater variety in shoe choice, and his approach on his blog is to poke fun at the status quo in addition to providing the occasional shoe review. He also has published a number of interesting guest posts  is well worth a look if you haven't seen it already."We (ASICS) are now working on a training shoe that is less structure and lightweight, but still offering stability and holding true to a rearfoot srike pattern design.

I have based this on the premise that, no matter what is being said about technical running footwear, there is no evidence that it really  aint broken, so we will tweak, but no need to fix. The minimalist movement works on the premise that by reducing heel height, i.e. the overall gradient, by maybe 6 mm, it induces a midfoot or even forefoot asics gel nimbus strike pattern. I have not been able to identify one single piece of credible evidence to support this.. so.. we will stick to our guns. Once more the ether is thick with unsupportable nonsense. pose, chi, toning, barefoot, minimalist& .

Some people will naturally forefoot strike in any shoe you give them, just as some asics tigers people will continue to heel strike even when you take their shoes off  see Daniel Lieberman's 2010 Nature paper for evidence of this. However, both cases are rare  forefoot striking in lifted shoes is not common, just as heel striking barefoot is not common. I also agree that many runners do just fine heel striking, but anecdotal evidence (and I get a lot of it) suggests that others do not, and that moving to less shoe can be of great benefit. Does everyone need to go minimalist? No, absolutely not.

Again to Squadrone and Gallozzi, 2009. Running in zero drop Vibram Fivefingers compared to asics trainers mens traditional shoes reduces oxygen consumption and reduces ground contact time (which has been shown to be associated with greater speed). Maybe it's not a perfect example, but the claim that there is NO evidence is false. We can turn this around and ask for peer reviewed, published evidence of a benefit to running in ASICS shoes. What is the benefit of a 12mm lifted heel? You'll typically hear about reduced Achilles problems, but has this been proven? Richards et al., 2008 state that "& the overall impact on injury rates of running in a shoe with an elevated heel remains untested in clinical trials ."

Finally, there's a snide remark about minimalist shoes following the path of toning shoes. However, I have a big problem with this. Toning shoes are an aberration that deviate humans farther from the condition we are born with (barefoot). Minimalist shoes bring us closer to our natural condition (barefoot). I would argue that the Asics Kinsei or Kayano has a lot more in common with a Sketchers Shape-Up than the Vibram Fivefingers do. I, for one, was not born with a hunk of unstable cushioning under my foot (like the Sketchers provide), nor was I born with my heel lifted 12mm off the ground with a support element wedged below my arch.

I think I've said enough here. My position asics womens running shoes is and has been that each runner is an individual, and I agree with Bartold when he states that. Given this, different runners have different preferences and needs. Some may want a 12mm lifted shoe, but others don't. Some of those who don't might have made the switch to escape a long term injury, and it's clear that in many cases switching to minimalist shoes has helped. Some (like me) switch simply because we enjoy running in minimalist shoes more than in big heavy clunkers (and yes, I have run in Asicsa Kayanos as well as the 2100 series).