Neutral trail shoes? (Read 684 times)

I am an underpronator with a really slim heel looking for trail running shoes. The first thing I did was go to my local running store but the manager was on vacation and the women helping me put me in the Mozuno trail ascend 3's. The fit me great but here is my concern. I am an underpronator and the two times I accidently got fitting into a motion control shoe jacked up my knees. She seemed surprised that wearing motion controlled shoes as an underpronator could hurt your knees; that really threw up some read flags. Now this particular shoe seems to have support on both sides so maybe it would be different or maybe ALL trail shoes are motion controlled to deal with the terrain but I don't want to buy them and get hurt. Are there differences in what you look for in a trail shoe compared to road shoes? There don't seem to be many without stability control so maybe all trail shoes are like that for a reason. I just don't know. Any advice? BTW, I am doing my long runs on rolling fire roads but they are rocky enough I have fallen once all ready but they aren't "technical". Oh and I tried the New Balance 840 and they just don't fit my foot

I have some new Saucony trail shoes with the narrowest heel I could find. I really <3 them.="" they="" are="" the="" only="" ones="" that="" do="" not="" slip="" on="" my="" heels.="" i="" also="" like="" merrells="" for="" trail="" running.="" i="" do="" not="" live="" in="" a="" place="" that="" carries="" some="" of="" the="" more="" "trail="" specific"="" brands,="" so="" i="" can't="" report="" on=""></3>

I'm looking for a store that carries the merrells and it seems no one carries the inov-8 shoes. I was surprised how well the mozuno's fit my foot but the stability in them just worries me. I'm surprised that is their only trail shoe I'll make a note to find the Saucony's; I didn't know they had narrow heels and I'm sure the running store carries them.

I could be wrong, but aren't the majority of trail running shoes neutral?

I have a narrow heall too and my hees slip in most of my normal road shoes. However, I love my Salomon XA-Pro 3Ds. Very light for a trail shoe, and not too much motion control. I mainly wear them for the traction and ability to dry off quickly. Almost all trail shoes support your ankles more than your road shoes and are neutral, pronation control does not make much sense on the trail. However trail shoes have wider outsoles which help on uneven/technical trails. IMHO, after a few /months of easy running on trails, your ankles and feet get strong enough that you most likely will not need pronation control anymore unless you have structural issues in your feet.

So the wider outsoles can feel like motion control? I could definitely feel something controlling my side to side motion and it really scared me. How can I tell if the support I was feeling was the wider outsoles or actual pronation control? I'm not sure what I'm looking for. If these shoes aren't pronation controlled, I know I want them because they fit my foot perfectly.

I wanted to thank everyone who posted to this thread. I gave up and went back the store when the owner was there. It turns out I was right and the Mozuno's have pronation control so I ended up with a pair of brooks Cascadia 3's. I'm also ordering a pair of inov-8's (I just have to decide which ones) and going to start rotating my shoes. He suggested I to run half my runs on the trails since all the roads are slanted and let him know in a couple weeks if the back of my knees feel better. The owner of the store is truly excellent and I've learned a lot from him, but the selection isn't super extensive. Hopefully, since I have a better idea of what to look for, I can start ordering my shoes online. For anyone with inov-8's do they run average or narrow compared to ascics, brooks or mozunos?

Almost all trail shoes support your ankles more than your road shoes and are neutral, pronation control does not make much sense on the trail.

I may regret asking this... but why? (this is a sincere question, not the cloaked, passive-aggressive version of "you're wrong")

For anyone with inov-8's do they run average or narrow compared to ascics, brooks or mozunos?

I don't find that they run narrow at all. I wear Mizunos for the roads and Inov-8 (flyroc) for the trail. If you go to the inov-8 webpage they have descriptions of all of their models and what type of terrain they are suitable for. I gambled and ordered them "blind" and was lucky that they worked out for me. http://www.inov-8.com/Products-Terrain.asp?PG=PG1&L=27&TID=41