Forums >Gears and Wears>Men's vs. women's running shoes
I'm down to my last few pairs of my trusty Fastwitch 4s. They were actually available on Amazon for well over a year after being discontinued, but no longer. However, the women's Fastwitch 4 is still available.
So... what's the difference? Is it only color, or something else? Yeah, I prefer electric yellow to pale green, but if my feet won't know the difference...
Feeling the growl again
A wise man once told me the only difference is 2 sizes.
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills
I tend to wear men's running shoes (it's that, or depend on the women's version being available in the largest size they make-- and not being on the small side). Women's shoes tend to be a bit narrower in the heel. In the shoes I run in it's not a very noticeable difference.
Oh right. There is that problem -- the shoes only go up to size 12 (or at least, that's all that's available on Amazon), = men's 10, but I need 11.5 - 12. Oh well.
The arches are sometimes placed differently also besides the heels being more narrow in womens.
I've occasionally tried a men's shoe for the width, but always seem to swim in them.
I've also wondered if men's shoes are built for heavier duty use with more material under the foot. At least to me it seemed that way, but it's been many years since I've tried a men's shoe on.
And, yes, the overall size issue.
How different is the 4 from the fastwitch 5? The 5s are a great deal now.
Oh roo roooo!
I buy both men's and women's shoes, depending on what's on sale, and so far haven't noticed any real difference (other than the obvious sizing difference, as mentioned above) in the way they fit or how long they last. Just my 2 cents...
Lots.
Shoe is completely different.
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I was thinking about starting a thread last night asking runners here where to get wide width women's running shoes. Well, this is what I know about the width: Men's medium width is D (most regular shoes), wide width is E (2E, 3E, 4E[extra wide]). For women, medium width is B, wide width is C/D, narrow is A. So besides the size (length) conversion (to be sure, google it), you'll need to take into account the width. As some already mention, the shape might be different. But don't know how much that would matter. For me, I'm getting desperate and starting thinking about getting men's shoes (most W's C/D still too narrow). But most M's don't have my size.
I have very small feet and have always had to wear women's running shoes. Back in the OLDEN DAYS, you could get smaller mens sizes but now they mostly start at size 7 or 7.5. I wear men's size 5.5 and normally woman's size 7 running shoes, so this has been an issue for me for a LOT of years (years ago as an Army Officer and Company Commander, I had the smallest feet in my unit of 350)..
About 2 years ago I came across a man that has been a running shoe designer for many of the companies that we all know (Nike, Brooks and a couple of others) and I had a nice conversation with him. He told me they should make running shoes all Unisex because outside of color (for marketing purposes) there wasn't a difference between men's and women's. He told me that the reason we all hear a lot about wider and more narrow and different heals and on and on is so people will 'think' they are getting something special or made more for them, but that it was all just marketing and sales.
He said that if you find a running shoe that you like and they feel good, run in it regardless of if it"s being designated women or mens shoe because it really doesn't matter...
Champions are made when no one is watching
Those widths are no more standard than the length dimension is.
I have found that the trail shoes tend to run wider than road shoes, but not always. An xodus 3 (std width for women) is almost the same width as a Adrenaline ASR wide. Vasque mindbenders and blurs (std width) fit better than ASR wide. I think Hokas tend to run wide and big (may take an 8.5 in them vs 9-9.5 in other shoes). I haven't tried any men's shoes recently, but they generally didn't work for me. A men's D is probably wider than a women's D or at least shaped differently - at least when I tried many years ago.
But if women's C/D is still too narrow for you, then maybe men's would work. It really varies a lot by model, not just manufacturer. But I do agree that manufacturers tend to not provide many options for women's wide feet, narrow heels.