Your form changes, as does the terrain, the season, and your needs. Long lasting or fast during racing season, XC or Trail, what shoe should you buy? I am a firm believer that you should buy a shoe that feels good and runs well for you with what you are running right then. “You will know”. Recent studies indicating that the shoes for “pronation” or “over pronation” provide “support” are just a bit ridiculous. Read some of the serious literature on orthotics [disclaminer, have bought support shoes and had great luck with orthotics, or thought I did] and then go to a modern PT expert and have a real tune up and you start to realize what magic this all is.
A recent article on the Washington Post site, on this topic of shoe purchase led me runrepeat.com. Check it out.
…if you want the closest thing to an objective look at quality and cost, a Danish Web site called runrepeat.com has crunched the numbers from nearly 135,000 consumer reviews it gathered over a year, along with the suggested retail price of most of the popular brands.
The biggest surprise: The higher the price, the lower the rating in many cases. In fact, the 10 most expensive running shoes, with an average list price of $181 per pair, were rated 8.1 percent lower than the 10 cheapest models (average price $61).