Effects of deceptive footwear condition on subjective comfort and running biomechanics

Author ORCID Identifier

Janet Zhang-Lea: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8180-7356

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Translational Sports Medicine

Abstract

Comfort is a major criterion for footwear selection. Previous studies have suggested that physical properties were not enough to predict comfort and psychological factors could also affect the perception. To understand comfort, this study examined the effect of controlled shoe description and price cue on the perception of comfort. Furthermore, this study also examined the running biomechanics in response to footwear conditions of differing comfort. Fifteen runners completed treadmill running tests in two conditions: Shoe A and Shoe B. The same pair of neutral running shoes was used in both conditions, yet, Shoe B was described to be the “latest model designed to maximize comfort” and more expensive than Shoe A. Comfort assessment was conducted after the running trial of each condition. Participants reported significantly greater comfort in Shoe B than Shoe A (p=0.011, Cohen’s d=0.70). There were no significant differences found among the temporal-spatial parameters (p>0.916) and the vertical loading rates (p>0.161) when comparing the more and less comfortable conditions. In conclusion, runners exhibited a biased perception of footwear comfort when presented with different shoe description and price information. However, such a difference in perceived comfort alone is not likely to affect running biomechanics.

Pages

256-262

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.1002/tsm2.135

Volume

3

Publication Date

1-13-2020

Keywords

Exercise; Joint; Psychological adaptation; Perception; Kinetics; Kinematics; Trend Symmetry

Disciplines

Medicine and Health Sciences | Sports Sciences | Translational Medical Research

ISSN

2573-8488

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Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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