The 6 Best Running Shoes for Underpronation
Supination can hurt your stride and wear your shoes out. These do the best job of mitigating the problem with flexible uppers and neutral midsoles.
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Underpronation, also known as supination, happens when your feet and ankles roll away from your center of mass. This means you run on the outer edge of your feet and put less weight on your big toe at the end of your strike. And it comes with less-than-ideal consequences: Ankle sprains, shin splints, and plantar fasciitis are all common among supinators. That’s according to Steven Weinfeld, M.D. and Marci Goolsby, M.D., two physiology experts from New York that contributing writer Jenny McCoy interviewed for our guide to supination.
Luckily, despite stability shoes largely appealing to overpronators, there are plenty of neutral shoes that may accommodate an outward-rolling stride without compromising comfort, energy return, or fit. Spoiler alert: They’re among our favorites we’ve tested as neutral-striding runners, too.
The Best Running Shoes for Underpronation
- Best Daily Trainer: Asics Novablast 4
- Best Value: Nike Winflo 11
- Best for Race Day: New Balance FuelCell SuperComp Elite v4
- Best Trail Shoe: Saucony Endorphin Rift
- Best for Recovery Days: Hoka Clifton 9
What to Consider
How To Tell If You Underpronate
One of the first signs of underpronation might not even come from your feet, but rather the shoes under them. Because supination causes you to shift your weight to the outsides of your feet (and land on the outside of your foot, according to Weinfeld), you’re likely to notice uneven wear on the outer edges of your outsoles. It’s an especially good idea to catch this early, because shedding away the outer edge of your shoes will leave more material on the inner edge of your outsole, tilting them further outward.
If you don’t have a well-worn pair of shoes to check, you can take a look at your stride by setting up a camera and filming yourself running away from it. If you notice your ankles swaying outward noticeably on impact, chances are that you’re a supinator. Similarly, you can check your arches by getting your feet wet and looking at the water splotches you make on your bath mat or some heavy paper. If your feet aren’t soaking the ground much around the midfoot, you likely have high arches, which can cause underpronation as well.
Foot Support (Or Lack Thereof)
Unlike stability and support shoes for overpronators, which hold the foot in one place to prevent it from rolling inward, supinators will likely find the best relief in a shoe that encourages as much pronation as possible. In other words, you’ll want a neutral sole with an upper that doesn’t hold your feet too still—think sock-like uppers, for example, which are made of a more malleable fabric and can flex freely. All of this extra movement will encourage your feet to transition to putting weight on your big toe during each stride, fixing your underpronation.
What’s stopping those uppers from letting your ankles supinate more? The answer: wide, durable soles. Extra width will better enable your feet to sit flat on a stable platform instead of tilting over the edge, and extra durability keeps the integrity of the sole intact for longer, mitigating any unwanted shoe geometry changes from landing on the edge of your foot.
How We Selected
For that aforementioned guide to supination, Weinfeld and Goolsby elaborated on the signs and risks of underpronation, as well as the shoe styles that best combat its negative effects. In short, they told us that a neutral running shoe with good cushioning is the best way to narrow the field down. Thus began our digging through tester notes to see which shoes fit this description and wowed us the most. We looked for shoes with good energy return, outsoles that roll through each stride with as little effort as possible, and uppers that feel light and unrestrictive.
We parsed through our top options for daily trainers, racing shoes, and even our budget picks to see which shoes would be the least likely to exacerbate an outward foot tilt. Then, we made sure they were all priced appropriately for their quality and ensured their continued availability. Where applicable, we also looked at new versions of shoes our editors have recommended in the past, paying close attention to changes in fit, weight, and geometry to ensure they’re still reliable.
To be clear, this isn’t medical advice—we recommend trying any and all of these shoes in person before making the jump to purchase a pair, because none of them are guaranteed to fix your feet. If you have a local running store, the employees there will be willing and able to help you figure out exactly what fit you need. These are merely the shoes that have worked for us, and we offer them up as a starting point in your search. If you’re struggling with severe pain, we recommend talking to your doctor before you do anything else.
If you’re ready to see why we think these shoes are worth your attention as a supinator, read on.
Adam Schram is an Assistant Editor of Commerce at Runner's World, though you might see his byline on Bicycling and Popular Mechanics, too. A lover of all things outdoors, Adam's writing career comes after six years as a bike mechanic in his hometown of State College, PA. His journalism experience is steeped in cycling and running gear reviews, and he's also a published creative nonfiction and satire author. When he's not writing, riding, or running, you can catch Adam at home mixing cocktails, watching Star Wars, or trying in vain to do the Sunday crossword. You can check out his latest work below.
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