Sole

Years ago I visited a company in Madison, right next to Fitchburg, owned by a person who was the then Parks Commission Chair for Fitchburg.  Being in that position he also sat on the Fitchburg Plan Commission, and hence the reason for the visit.  One invention of his Company, Bjorksten Research Laboratories, was a machine that mimicked the human foot movement.  I recall that it was funded in part by the US Army so boots and soles of prospective army footwear providers could be tested.  It would be a neat machine to use to test varied footwear, particularly to see the effect of pavement on the sole of a shoe.

Rock Formation near Enee Point

Over the past several years, since coming down with planter fasciitis, I have become more aware of the state of my footwear.  I used to wear my shoes well beyond their point of providing support. This may have been the factor, and if not the factor a contributing factor to developing planter fasciitis. What I learned is that not all shoes are made equal, and not all name brand shoes.  For example, a New Balance tennis shoe at Kohl's is not the same as a more expensive, though different, New Balance shoe, at Morgan's Shoes.  In particular, I pay attention to the outer sole. I walk a good deal.  When I worked I walked about two miles at lunch and when home, I walk a 2.7 mile route.  I do that 2.7 mile route to this day. The route is all pavement, and it well wears my shoes and in particular, the soles.    

Meadow Trail on a foggy Monday Morning

I had a pair of tennis shoes at work and a pair at home.  My shoes at home were also my daily wear footwear. My kids would shake their head at my white tennis shoes, but to me it was function over form. They get their head shaking from their mother. She is particularly fond of shaking her head at somebody.  Since I developed fasciitis in 2013-2014, the tennis shoes I bought, after recommendation at Morgan Shoes, came in two colors, white and brown.  I wore white at home and brown for walking at work.  I pushed to get just under a year of my home pair, and a little more than a year out of the work pair. Perhaps I pushed more than I should have.  

Meadow Trail

I got a Fitbit for Valentine's Day in 2019, and due to that device I perhaps walk even more.  For example, my walk, which I try to do in the morning, will gain me about 5,200 steps.  Sometimes less, sometimes more.  If by early or mid afternoon, I find my self well short of the 10,000 step goal, I will do about a second walk of just over a mile, or, depending on steps required, I extend by another seven tenths of a mile. This is accomplished to get to that magical non-medical derived 10,000 number. This is where the issue of the sole comes in.

View of one part of Cox Hollow Lake

In 2019, while working at a garden center, I found myself putting in a lot of steps, one day I had over 20,000 from working there, and my feet were hurting.  At that point, on the advice of the wife, I switched to wearing my hiking shoes.  Over the summer, I felt the feet get better, but the shoes started to wear.  I wore two different pair during that course of time, one which I had new heels put a year or so prior.  The other pair I wore until about mid April of 2020 when I threw them out.  Structurally they had broken down in more places than the sole.  The pair that had new heels put on I still have as a back up pair, but they are nearing the end of their heel sole extended life.  

Lost Creek Trail

When at REI last winter I bought a new pair of hiking shoes in anticipation of the other pair wearing out.  I started wearing that pair in mid April.  As I wore the shoes through the summer I could see wear on the sole, and by early August, the outer sole on the left shoe was worn through.  My left shoe heel always wears faster than my right shoe heel.  The thing is, hiking shoes have much better support than typical shoes (and the New Balance Tennis shoes), particularly the Oboz pair I bought last winter, but hiking shoes tend to have "softer"soles which are prone to wear.  As a guy at Oboz told me, the sole is not meant for wear on hard surfaces.  This I knew from my other pairs, although it seemed to me I should get more than four months of wear, regardless of surface.  That made me wonder how long a pair of shoes should last.

Part of Twin Valley Lake, viewed from Cave Trail

I was talking to neighbor, who runs, and she said one can expect a pair of running shoes to last about 400 miles. I did an internet search and found 300 to 500 miles, so her comment was right at the midpoint (per a health website).  I then wondered what about walking shoes, and I found higher variability.  One site said, they should be replaced every six to nine months, or about 1000 to 1500 miles.  Another site said, if you walk about three to four hours a week, expect to replace your walking shoes every three to six months, or by 500 miles.  I walk daily for a minimum of 50 minutes, so that alone is 5.8 hours a week.  Add to this that I wore them for most all other daily activity.  In other words, they go in the morning, and would come off at night. What I learned at Morgan's is that by the time most shoes show significant wear, the structural damage is already well in place.  Sole Science, another website, says that for most people shoes should be replaced every eight to twelve months, but they give no wear, other than to say replace running shoes at 500 to 700 km (310 to 434 miles).  Now, that is for athletic shoes, what about hiking shoes?  I found a similar mileage applies for hiking shoes, particularly those of lighter weight construction (300 to 500 miles), or 600 to 700 miles for a pair of hiking boots. I am quite sure, my hiking shoes would last longer if most of my steps had not been on a hard surface.  That then led to a question, how many miles did I put on my Oboz hiking shoes from mid April to the end of August?

Cave on Cave Trail

With the Fitbit I can easily access some data.  I started on April 26, due to a lost Fitbit, I have no record of the steps the prior week.  I ended on 9/1 which is the last date I wore the hiking Oboz (Firebrand II) I bought last winter for daily wear. What I found was I walked 1,917,449 steps from April 26 to Sept 1.  I know Fitbit calculates mileage, but it is wrong, since, it says my walk route is 2.3 miles, but when measured by Google Maps, and DCI map I get 2.69 to 2.73 miles, so I used 2.7 miles.  I know from the Fitbit that my route gives me about 5,100 to 5,300 steps a day, and so I will use 5,200.  Using 5200 steps for 2.7 miles, I get about 1,925 steps per mile. That works out to 996 miles!  Now, because I wear some other shoes, such as steel toed shoes when mowing and doing some yard work, or slippers when I am in the house at night, I reduced the total steps by 20% and 30%, which would provide 796 or 697 miles, respectively.  Given that, the Oboz Firebrand lasted about what a pair of hiking boots should last in terms of mileage is up to about 700 miles.  I guess this is good news, but still, to wear out a pair of footwear in four months seems pretty quick.  Of course, some of those steps were actually used for hiking, but that amount of miles is minimal compared to my total. If I wore them completely on a "softer" trail surface, I doubt the soles would have worn as much.  Trail walking, according to Oboz, also does not provide the consistent wear spots as what occurs from flat pavement.  

Rock Formation, Cave Trail

For just over four months, I walked a total of almost 1,000 miles, but I also noticed that for a period from Jan 1 to April 19, or three and a half months, I walked 710 miles.  Hence, I am pretty active all year around.  This year in particular since we started snow shoeing and that amount would add to my daily walk total, in some cases.  

Waterfall, outlet of Cox Hollow Lake

The conclusion is that I walked a good deal more wear out of my Oboz hiking shoes than I had thought.  I also found out that while I noticed a good deal of wear on the soles of my hiking shoes, the overall wear appears to be within range of expected life span of the footwear.  It sure would be nice to have that Bjorksten boot tester, and open a business to test footwear longevity and steps.  Just put a Fitbit on the boot tester and one could get its steps.  Whatever the case may be, shoes wear at different rates, and it depends not just on the materials but where you walk.  Pay attention to your soles: both on your foot and on your footwear.

Tuesday Evening Sunset

Photos from Gov Dodge State Park, Sept. 13-17, 2020