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Your closet may be full of shoes that look like running shoes. You pair these athleisure, or casual-wear shoes, with jeans, shorts, or dresses, and they are generally comfortable to walk in, or to wear when on your feet all day. Like your more technical—and more expensive—running shoes, athleisure shoes have a midsole, an outsole, and an upper, and laces that secure them to your feet. Many athleisure shoes even come from the same brands that make running shoes and might share some of the same technologies. So, if your casual shoes both look good and feel good while walking or standing, why can’t you run in them? Or, can you?
We asked two footwear and biomechanics experts to weigh in on the question. Jay Dicharry is a professor, sports clinical specialist, physical therapist, running shoe expert, and consultant to entities like USA Track and Field, he’s also the author of Running Rewired and Anatomy for Runners. Dr. Geoffrey Gray is the founder of Heeluxe shoe testing facility in Santa Barbara, California, a scientific lab that analyzes everything from shoe fit measured by pressure sensors, to how temperature variation of a shoe affects general comfort. Here’s what Dicharry and Gray have to say about running in shoes designed for athleisure.
Athleisure Vs. Running Shoes – The Differences
“First things first: No one’s going to live or die based on what kind of shoes they’re running in,” Gray says. People run in sandals, and people run in stiff, heavy combat boots. There are even a handful of short-distance running events in which competitors run in high-heeled shoes. But arguably, any shoe not designed specifically for running likely doesn’t optimize comfort or performance.
“I always go back to, ‘What is the ultimate customer experience?’” says Gray, who, via Heeluxe, has a database of over 2,000 running and walking shoes tested from a wide range of brands. “When you compare them, running shoes have 31% softer cushioning than walking/athleisure shoes. And that is usually a feature that the average consumer looks for.”
Gray says that the overall comfort score of the average running shoe he’s tested is 5.2 on his seven-point scale, while the comfort score of the average walking and casual shoe is 4.89 out of seven. “That’s about a 6% difference in overall comfort scores [on that scale],” he says, “which is a pretty big deal.”
One of the factors that contributes to comfort, beyond cushioning, is fit: A “good” fit, in Heeluxe lab terms, is called a “normal” fit. The data shows that 83% of the running shoes tested by Heeluxe have a normal fit, while only 72% of casual and walking shoes have what he deems a normal fit. Gray points to research that says a running shoe that fits well factors into performance as well. “The number-one influence on comfort is fit, and running shoes fit better.”
Dicharry agrees that there are significant differences between running-specific shoes and casual shoes. He notes how a running shoe has a rockered shape or notable toe spring (the front end of a shoe curving upward). “The rockered shape of a shoe makes it easier to walk or run,” he says. “That has to do with ankle push-off force.”
Dicharry points out how many consumers are choosing rockered running shoes from traditional running shoe brands for walking and jobs that require a lot of time on the feet. “They just kind of roll forward,” he says. But that’s an example of a subset of people using running shoes for athleisure or for walking. What about the other way around?
Running in Athleisure Shoes – What’s the Risk?
Because most athleisure shoes have less cushioning than running shoes, the amount of impact going into the body is going to be higher when running in casual shoes, explains Gray. “So that’s going to put more strain on your joints, muscles, tendons, ligaments … which, typically, is not a good thing,“ he says.
Heeluxe’s stability measurements have also found that, in general, running shoes offer more stability and impact protection to the wearer than a walking shoe. “Is there enough science here to be able to make an assertion that, ‘Hey, the average athleisure shoe is going to put more strain on your body when you run in it?’ I think that’s pretty fair,” Gray says.
Although most athleisure shoes are comfortable for walking and standing, that doesn’t mean they’re comfortable for running. Dicharry explains that, while the forces and stresses while walking “aren’t that big,” running is a different story. For that reason, the types of foams and how they’re tuned make a big difference in both running efficiency and comfort. He notes that most athleisure shoes lack the performance cushioning of running shoes.
Heeluxe also tests the durability of a shoe’s materials with a proprietary machine that simulates the human foot repeatedly hitting a treadmill. (It’s able to test 150 miles of running in under five days.) “Generally speaking, more durable materials are being used in running shoes than in casual walking or athleisure shoes. Running shoes are going to last a lot longer,” Gray adds.
Blurred Lines
All that said, not all athleisure shoes are created equal. Some might be less expensive, simpler designs of higher-end running shoes within a brand’s offering, with less-advanced midsole foams, geometries, and materials overall.
“Those will break down really fast if you run in them,” Dicharry says. Others utilize minimal cushioning and sleeker fits, designed with retro styling as throwbacks to the early days of running shoes, which can feel more like running in slippers and are suitable only for those who have trained to run in minimalist models.
Others are pushing the boundaries of packing running-shoe technology into a casual-wear or athleisure shoe.
Case in point: In April of 2024, Deckers (which owns Hoka) relaunched the more athleisure-leaning brand, Ahnu. The brands’ first release, however, the Ahnu Sequence 1, is constructed with a PEBA midsole foam and forked carbon-fiber plate, much like a racing supershoe. However, despite the “race engine,” it’s designed with a stylish monochromatic color scheme and a suede upper that is a much better fit for casual wear than, say, running a marathon in the rain.
“It’s a super-sneaker,” says Jean-Luc Diard, co-founder of Hoka and current innovation consultant for Deckers—and the vision behind the Sequence 1 and the sub-category-within-a-category. Could you run in it? Most likely. But it’s not designed or optimized for that.
Both Gray and Dicharry agree that performance running shoe tech trickling down into athleisure shoes is promising for the footwear industry in general.
But whether a shoe’s midsole is composed of more traditional EVA or nitrogen-infused “superfoams” (found in today’s super shoes), it’s important to note that the tuning affects the ride. “If a foam is tuned to ride like your grandpa’s Buick, it’s going to bottom out when you run. And a lot of athleisure shoes might feel like that,” Dicharry says.
But the heavy, softly tuned Buick analogy ends there, as Grey notes that, on average, shoes meant for athleisure weigh roughly four ounces less than the average running shoe because they don’t have the technical features of a running shoe. And weight is a significant factor when it comes to a shoe’s running performance.
“So,” Grey says, “could there be some advantages to an athleisure shoe? Totally. But on the whole, no, they’re not really meant for the sport of running.”