For what it’s worth, some have opted for unisex lasts-an approach Katie Manser, the Supervisor of Research Operations at Heeluxe Footwear, an independent shoe research lab, dismisses. But “female feet … are not algebraically scaled, smaller versions of male feet, as is often assumed,” a study in the Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association declared way back in 2009.Īs a result, more and more brands started using female lasts based on the mold of a woman’s foot. For a long time, those lasts were based only on molds of men’s feet. Shoes are designed around foot-shaped molds called lasts, which dictate the fit and feel as well as the aesthetics and proportions. And with more female designers working for the biggest shoe brands in the world, companies are finally rethinking how they approach women’s running shoes in order to meet the demand. With so many women on the roads, tracks, and trails, female athletes no longer want to compromise on footwear, forcing their feet into running shoes designed for the geometry of a different gender’s foot, then simply sized down to accommodate their own feet.
And in 2021, women’s performance footwear sales were growing at a faster rate than men’s, according to data from The NPD Group Inc.-a surge mostly driven by running. But, as of 2019, there were more female than male runners for the first time in history, according The State of Running report by (58 percent of American runners are women, the data revealed). It made sense when men dominated the sport, as athletes and designers. Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members!įor as long as women have been running in modern performance shoes-let’s say since the late 1960s, when women like Bobbi Gibbs and Kathrine Switzer shattered the ill-conceived notion that a woman’s uterus would fall out if she ran more than one or two miles-they’ve been doing it in sneakers designed for men’s feet.
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