Sneakers, Geared (and Gussied) Up

Of course, those criteria are meaningless when fashion comes into play. Who can sell a junior high school student on a stable toe box when he's surrounded by Reebok G Units, endorsed by Allen Iverson, and Nike Air Force Operates, worn by Carlos Boozer? And would the hipsters care if their vintage Adidas Boston Supers didn't offer the proper cushioning?

Still, the podiatrists try.

The APMA puts its "seal of acceptance" on a wide range of sneakers, each submitted by the manufacturer and tested by independent podiatrists. Ten styles of Reeboks made the cut, most of them designed for walking. Nike does not submit shoes, Glickman says -- perhaps because an endorsement from the APMA is less potent than one from Serena Williams or Kobe Bryant.

Stephen M. Pribut, a local podiatrist and president of the Rockville-based American Academy of Podiatric Sports Medicine, knows how to sort out the good, the bad and the mediocre. To demonstrate, he goes to a local specialty footwear store, Fleet Feet, in Adams Morgan.

He grabs an armful off a display wall -- Adidas Supernova Control, the Brooks Beast, Asics Gel Evolution and Nike Free -- and dissects each. Pribut believes that sport-specific shoes are not a bad idea. Tennis and basketball, he points out, require side-to-side motion, and therefore side-to-side stability. "You don't want to wear a tennis shoe for walking. It is not as well designed for straight-ahead movement," he says.

Pribut favors the Brooks Addiction Walker, which has a strong heel counter, plenty of cushioning and a rigid structure. "For a lot of people, this might be too much shoe," he says. "But it's the ultimate motion control for a walker."

The Nike Free is a different matter. "It deserves that surgeon general box on cigarette packs -- 'This could be dangerous to your foot health,' " he says. "It allows the shoe to do whatever it wants to do. Feet need guidance."

Hatfield, the Nike engineer, says the Free is not designed to "replace any other shoe. We've said all along that Nike Free is a tool" for strengthening the feet, he says, adding that consumers must ease into it over time. "You might wear it two, three days a week. When you get back into your other shoes, you can push yourself that much harder."

Still, Nike has put its marketing muscle behind the Free. The sneaker has its own Web site, whose introduction seems to suggest that the Free will turn a pickup game of basketball or a run around the track into a back-to-Eden, barefoot experience. "In the beginning there was the foot. And that was good. That's why we designed a shoe that lets the foot run free. On any surface."

Adidas 1 has its own Web site, too. The company says the shoe, which it introduced first for runners, helps customize footwear in a world where body weights and foot shapes can vary widely. Two people might buy the same running shoe -- size 9, perhaps -- but one weighs 120 pounds, and the other 200. "Before now, you could never change cushioning," says Christian DiBenedetto, who helped develop the Adidas 1.

Now you can. A cable, attached to the sneaker's cushioning and running underneath the arch, works with a microprocessor and electric motor to adjust the fit with every step. (A battery must be periodically replaced.) Adidas 1's value for the non-runner is less clear. "Is it going to do them any harm? Absolutely not," DiBenedetto says.

Reebok, meanwhile, has resuscitated the pump, but this time there is no need to squeeze the tongue of the shoe. With the Pump 2.0, an air-filled chamber automatically takes on the contour of the foot after five to 10 steps. (The pump places enough pressure against the foot that laces are unnecessary.) Another version, called the Pump Wrapshear, lets buyers turn off the pump, should they tire of all that customization.

For the serious athletes of the world, however, the quest for the right shoe is endless. Donald Wilson, a competitive runner in the region, owns 30 pairs of sneakers -- a few Nikes, a few Adidas, a few Pumas -- each with its own function. Some are for running 5K races, others for marathons. One pair is designated for running on trails; another for running on concrete.

His rule of thumb: When a sneaker costs more than $100 "you are usually looking at too many bells and whistles."

Pribut, the podiatrist, has even simpler advice for sneaker buying: "If you've never had a problem with your feet, don't change."

When it comes to the latest technology, career athletic footwear salesmen seem to have the same reservations as podiatrists. "A lot of the technology is sold to people who don't have a clue how it works," says Shawn Fenty, who works at the Adams Morgan Fleet Feet store. He points to pair of Nike Shox, whose spring-like sole, the company says, distributes energy "so that your legs feel less fatigued over time."

"People come in and want to know what's going on here that's not happening in their shoe," he says. The answer? "Nothing," he says. Still, he continues, the genius of designing a shoe for a narrow athletic niche is that it tends to have the widest appeal.

Sneaker designers don't deny that. Many of their most elaborate concepts are created with a hard-charging athlete in mind -- in some cases, they recommend them only for those athletes. But they are thrilled when those shoes become hits in the mass market, and they make no apologies for the bells and whistles lost on the lazy consumer.

Reebok's senior vice president of research and development, Gene McCarthy, compares such buyers to SUV drivers who never take their cars off-road: "Most running shoes are never run in."