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Sports activities footwear producers ought to ditch the “shrink it and pink it” method to girls’s trainers, as a result of it fails to distinguish girls’s distinct anatomical and biomechanical wants throughout the life course from these of males, concludes a small qualitative examine revealed in BMJ Open Sports activities & Train Drugs.
Feminine-based designs, fairly than designs which might be male-based, may not solely increase girls runners’ consolation, but additionally improve damage prevention and their efficiency, say the researchers.
Over the previous 50 years, producers have invested billions of {dollars} in creating trainers that may stop damage, maximize consolation, and enhance runners’ efficiency. But each trade and educational analysis to tell these advances has predominantly been designed for and examined on males and boys, level out the researchers.
Trainers are designed by making a three-dimensional foot-shaped mildew referred to as a final, which is often based mostly on male foot anatomy, they clarify. Most manufacturers use the identical final for his or her whole vary, and past making the footwear smaller and altering the colour—a course of often known as “shrink it and pink it”—typically, solely minimal modifications are made to create girls’s footwear, they add.
The researchers subsequently wished to listen to from leisure and aggressive girls runners about which options they prioritize in a operating shoe and the way these may differ throughout the lifespan, with a view to informing future shoe design.
They recruited 21 examine individuals through posters displayed at native operating shops in Vancouver, Canada, with the intention of together with a broad vary of ages, operating expertise, and weekly operating quantity and frequency.
Eleven of the ladies have been leisure runners who clocked up a weekly common of 30 km; and 10 have been aggressive runners, who averaged 45 km. 9 of the ladies ran throughout being pregnant or quickly after giving beginning. Their ages ranged from 20 to 70, and their years of operating expertise ranged from 6 to 58.
The ladies have been requested to rank so as of significance the elements informing their alternative of trainers. The responses confirmed that their main issues have been the consolation and really feel of the shoe, damage prevention, and efficiency.
By way of consolation, most of them stated they wished a wider toe field, a narrower heel, and extra cushioning; aggressive runners additionally wished footwear incorporating performance-enhancing options, akin to a carbon plate, so long as these did not compromise consolation.
The ladies stated that they actively sought out trainers that they believed would assist stop operating accidents, and with this in thoughts, each teams emphasised the excessive worth they positioned on shopping for footwear from trusted retailers or personnel. They highlighted the necessity for various shoe designs or parts to align with completely different operating contexts—participating in races, coaching, pace work, or operating with an damage, for instance.
Those that have been moms reported needing a bigger shoe dimension and wider match in addition to extra help and cushioning throughout being pregnant and after giving beginning. Aggressive runners additionally stated they wanted added cushioning and help options of their footwear as they acquired older.
This examine concerned solely a small variety of individuals, and the researchers acknowledge that individuals got here from a particular geographical space, which can restrict the generalizability of the findings.
However, they counsel, “General, our findings spotlight a essential hole within the design of operating footwear, which has historically been based mostly on male anatomy and biomechanics.
“While participants did not always report an inability to find footwear, their narratives reflected a process of trial-and-error adaptation, often without guidance or purpose-built solutions. This suggests that their needs are not proactively addressed through current footwear design or communication.”
The researchers conclude, “We strongly recommend that the footwear industry should move beyond simply scaling down men’s shoes to fit women’s feet. Instead, there is a need for sex- and gender- specific designs that accommodate the distinct foot morphology of women and their social constructs and preferences, all of which evolve across the lifespan.”
Extra info:
“If a shoe had been designed from a woman’s foot, would I be running without getting the injuries?”: operating footwear wants and preferences of leisure and aggressive girls runners throughout the lifespan, BMJ Open Sport & Train Drugs (2025). DOI: 10.1136/bmjsem-2025-002597
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British Medical Journal
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Ditch the ‘shrink it and pink it’ method to girls’s trainers, researchers say (2025, October 14)
retrieved 14 October 2025
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