This is not particularly unique to health. We have long felt this way, since the birth of religion: We are inherently imperfect, and we are in constant need of interventions beyond ourselves.

Thus, feet bad; shoes good. And we are willing to pay a high price to pursue this belief, both physically and financially. In the case of our feet, rather than improving our running biomechanics (or avoiding the activity altogether if it doesn't suit us), we purchase fancy shoes, inserts, and orthotics, believing it will somehow do the job for us. Yet, with any consumer good, there is always a gap between promised and delivered. What we have all learned, hopefully, is that the body doesn't care what we believe, it will react however it reacts (unless placebo, but people tend to dislike placebo effects as well because they feel duped). A product may come with a money-back guarantee, but no similar guarantees exist with our bodies.

Research v. Promises

Researcher Benno Nigg and his colleagues at the University of Calgary were skeptical of foot alterations in shoes and published a review, poring over decades of studies on running injuries.

Health is neither cookie-cutter nor full of blanket answers, as this research confirms. In one extensive study of pronation, that included over 1,000 novice runners being tracked for a year, the runners with "normal" feet had a significantly higher injury rate than those who pronated.

As far as impact with the ground, they found little evidence that shoes offered much protection. In fact, the force of ground impact was inconclusive to running injury. (The area of impact is more important than the overall force of impact.)

Though more broad, perhaps overall durability, or lack thereof, is more relevant than foot alignment when it comes to injury. There is also the possibility that running is not appropriate for everyone. Some have already accumulated too much health debt, ready to be exposed in the first fitness activity they try. And the most common fitness activity everyone tries, happens to be running.

When military recruits were assigned shoes to alter their pronation, they were more likely to sustain other injuries. That's how their bodies learned to move and altering it derails everything their bodies know. It's like detaching the feet from the rest of the body. However, thick shoes with arch supports and orthotics promise to protect the feet; they never claimed it wouldn't hurt everything else.