Cushioning that reduces impact load.
For knee pain, footwear is one contributing factor rather than a fix. What shoes can plausibly change is the impact travelling up the leg and excessive inward roll that alters how load reaches the knee. Cushioned midsoles help on hard surfaces, and stability features help if you also overpronate.
Key takeaways
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Knee pain has many causes and most of them are not footwear. Shoes are worth considering as one contributing factor, not as a fix.
Where footwear plausibly helps is in reducing the impact travelling up the leg, and in correcting excessive inward roll that changes how load reaches the knee.
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Three On shoes that look similar and are built for completely different things. One of them isn't a running shoe at all.
They can contribute. Cushioning reduces impact travelling up the leg, and stability features can correct inward roll that changes how load reaches the knee. Most causes of knee pain are not footwear, so treat shoes as one factor.
Cushioned if your gait is neutral and you are mostly on hard surfaces. Stability if you also overpronate. Getting this wrong is why an expensive shoe sometimes feels worse than a cheap one.
They can contribute. Once a midsole is fully compressed it stops absorbing impact, and that load travels up the leg. Replace before the foam packs out rather than when the upper looks worn.