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remember walking out of a running store in the summer of 1990 with a pair of chunky, stiff, controlling Nikes and the words of the store salesman ringing in my ears: “You need these shoes and you need them now.” The shoe fitter had observed my gait on a treadmill, analyzed my training and injury history, and determined which models would enable me to run properly and avoid future injury. It didn’t matter much whether I liked them or felt comfortable in them (I didn’t, on both counts), I accepted the diagnosis and dutifully ran in them until it was time to get a new prescription. While not every shoe fitter of the day was as dogmatic as my confident clerk, he reflected the long-accepted belief of the running industry that shoes were essentially medical devices. Throughout much of the his...