Six Shoe Buying Tips

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I was out running today and realized that I’m gonna have to invest in a new pair of shoes. Yes, this is another post inspired by pavement pounding.

Shoes are expensive. Really expensive.

But it’s a necessary expense. Better to invest in a good pair of shoes than suffer from shin splints or blisters.

Fortunately, there are a few tricks for getting the price down.

• Shop the kid’s section if your feet are small enough. Nope, I’m not kidding. There’s a significant price difference. I wear a size 7 1/2 women’s, depending on the brand, and I can wear kid’s shoes.
• Shop through Swagbucks. Swagbucks has a new shop and earn feature. So cool! Basically, when you shop through their link, you are awarded a number of Swagbucks for each dollar you spend with a participating website. Currently, Famous Footwear’s rate is 8 Swagbucks per dollar spent. That’s the equivalent to 8% “cash” back!

• Go to a shoe store to get fitted if you’re unsure. Make sure the salesperson knows that you plan to shop around for a while and don’t plan to buy on the spot.
• Look through the sale rack. Often these are full of perfectly good shoes, but they have to go (at a reduced price, woot!) to make room for new styles. Athletic shoe styles are ridiculously faddish.
• Look for coupons and coupon codes. Sometimes, physical stores have an email List specifically for letting patrons know what’s on sale as well as when there’s a store coupon out. If you’re ordering online, make sure you look on both the website, as well as do some googling for coupon codes.
• Don’t forget to do your research! Find out which shoes have a reputation for lasting the longest, where you can get the best price on them and the best style for your foot/running style.

With these strategies, shouldn’t be quite so hard on the pocketbook. Off I go to follow my own advice!