Shoe geeks? Sneakerheads? The shoe culture is alive and well in OKC's running community
Cid Giselbach realized she had a problem when she moved to a new apartment last year.
The issue?
“I was packing up and realized, my god, I have three very large boxes that are nothing but shoes,” she said with a laugh.
These weren’t running shoes shoved to the back of the closet.
“All of these have hundreds of miles on them,” the Oklahoma City resident said. “It got to the point, like, OK, I have to donate some of these because this is absolutely ridiculous.”
Giselbach is a self-proclaimed shoe geek, and in the recreational running community, she isn’t the only one.
Not all that long ago, recreational runners had limited options when it came to shoes. Few features. Scant colors. But go to any of the races during the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon on Saturday and Sunday, and you’re bound to see running shoes of every style and hue.
Burke Beck has witnessed the change, having spent the past two decades on the retail side of running.
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“It’s such an expression of your personality, so you can really make your running shoe choice on what you like,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be so prescriptive anymore.”
Burke and her husband, Jon, opened Red Coyote Running and Fitness in 2010, and now with two locations, it is the biggest running store in Oklahoma City.
A few years ago, runners wanted black and white shoes.
“And now, it’s kind of trending back to 90s colors, bright white,” Burke said. “Five years ago, we couldn’t sell a white shoe to anyone.”
She chuckled.
“It’s fun to be part of that where I don’t feel like running shoes used to be part of the trend,” she said.
Does recreational running have a shoe culture?
Sneakerheads?
You bet.
But talk to runners, and one thing remains important above all else: how a shoe makes them feel.
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'Style is important'
Jackie Mania began running competitively in the early 1990s when she was only 11, and for those first few years, she didn’t pay any attention to her shoes.
“I was running in whatever my parents picked up for me at Walmart or Payless,” she said.
But when she started high school in Little Axe, it was around the same time OK Runner opened in Norman. It was the first true running store in the Oklahoma City area, and Mania remembers Tim Thompson, one of the brothers who opened OK Runner, bringing a carload of shoes to Little Axe for runners to try.
“We would choose from whatever shoes he had in the trunk of his car at that time,” Mania said.
Her first true running shoe was the Nike Pegasus. White and teal.
“And they were white and teal because teal was super cool in the 90s,” she said.
Not that Mania had another option if she didn’t like that color combination.
“It was like, ‘You can have this Pegasus in white and teal, or you can have this Saucony in blue and white,’” she said. “That was it.”
Now, every shoe company has multiple shoe styles, and each style comes in multiple colors.
The running shoe industry is now huge. According to Custom Market Insights, the global market was valued most recently at $15 billion and is expected to grow to around $19 billion by the turn of the decade.
That doesn’t surprise Mark Bravo. He has been around running since the 1970s, and now, the Oklahoma City-based running ambassador works with OK Runner, the area’s most established running store.
He marvels at how the technology in running shoes has changed. Some now include carbon fiber plates and nitrogen-infused foam. Shoes are not only lighter than ever but also able to return more energy to the runner.
But whenever someone comes into OK Runner wanting to buy a certain shoe because someone suggested it, Bravo cautions them: not every shoe works for every runner.
“Our job is not to sell you a particular model or brand,” he said, “unless we know it should be non-injurious to you.
“The style is important.”
Function, then, over fashion.
Some runners are willing to switch brands and try different shoes in an effort to find what works best for them. Others stick to what works.
They are the loyalist faction of the sneakerheads.
'Takes a lot for a runner who’s been doing it for a while ... to change'
Amy Heise has a laundry list of requirements for her running shoes.
Stability. Low drop. Wide toe box. Ample cushion.
The Edmond resident found all of that in the Brooks PureCadence. For years, she ran in the shoe because she feared switching to a different shoe might result in an injury. And she admits she may have been a little superstitious about sticking with what worked for her.
Then, Brooks discontinued the line.
“I was crushed,” Heise said. “After my initial sulking, I looked for the most similar shoe I could find.
“It took a long time to find a shoe I really loved again.”
Now, Heise runs in the Saucony Guide and will run the OKC Memorial Marathon, her first full marathon, in them.
Brand loyalty isn’t unique in the running world.
Mania tried Brooks about a decade ago and hasn’t run in anything else since. She has changed styles within the Brooks brand, going from the Ghost to the Glycerin, and while she sometimes gets jealous seeing other brands that she likes the looks of, that isn’t enough to entice her to switch.
“It takes a lot for a runner who’s been doing it for a while, who trusts their shoes, who knows they’re not going to get injured, to change a model or brand,” Mania said.
She even knows people who are so true to a particular model of a particular brand that they regularly scour eBay to find those exact shoes.
Still, the running shoe industry isn’t standing still.
Burke, the Red Coyote co-owner, was part of a group invited to Paris earlier this spring by Asics. The group, all women, consisted of retailers and influencers, and the running shoe company wanted to hear from them about shoe style, color and feel.
“Ten years ago, they were the No. 1 running shoe brand,” Burke said of Asics, “but I think they were just slow to evolve.”
Now, Asics is flying women to Paris to share what they want in running shoes.
Burke said it is a sign of the changes happening in the running shoe industry.
“Now, they all make their shoes in multiple colors and special-edition colors,” she said. “Then there’s also collaborations. Like Hoka is doing a collaboration with Balenciaga.
“Some of these special-edition shoes will resale for three times what they cost.”
Eat your heart out, DJ Khaled.
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'Worse things to be addicted to'
If you happen to be near Cid Giselbach in the starting line corral at the Memorial Marathon ― she'll be the one wearing the neon orange and yellow Hoka Bondis ― don't be surprised if she asks you about your shoes.
Especially if you're wearing something she's never worn.
"What is it that you like?" she may ask. "Do you think it's worth getting?"
Giselbach usually adds shoes to her list.
"And eventually it somehow ends up in my home," she said with a laugh.
Then again, shoes are the only truly necessary pieces of equipment for recreational runners, so Giselbach wants hers to be spot on. Perfect fit. Optimal performance.
“It’s the equivalent of trying to play football in a bicycle helmet,” she said. “Can you do it? Yes. Should you? Absolutely not.”
And if that means she has more running shoes than one person should probably have, she is fine with that.
“I guess there’s worse things to be addicted to,” Giselbach said.
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at 405-475-4125 or jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok, and support her work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon
When: 5K, 7 a.m. April 29; senior marathon, 8 a.m. April 29; kids marathon, 9 a.m. April 29; marathon and half marathon wheelchair, 6:25 a.m. April 30; marathon, half marathon and marathon relay, 6:30 a.m. April 30.
Where: Downtown Oklahoma City
Weather: Cloudy, high of 67 on April 29. Cloudy, high of 68 on April 30.
Registration: All races still have open spots, but race officials say the marathon, half marathon, kids marathon and senior marathon are approaching their participant maximums.
More information: OKCMarathon.com
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: 2023 OKC Memorial Marathon: Function, style important in running shoes
