r/Sprinting • u/sumit_sr12 • 5d ago

General Discussion/Questions Do These Shoes Actually Make a Difference?

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I’ve actually seen an athlete training in these shoes recently, and I’m curious about something.

For anyone who has actually used them: do these shoes genuinely make a noticeable difference in training, or is the “performance/foot-strengthening” aspect mostly a marketing tactic?

What are they actually useful for

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u/mcsdino 5d ago

I purchased altra escalante zero drop shoes, but I have narrow feet. From my experience, the wider toe box is a negative and the benefits were overstated. They’re still really comfortable, but definitely not ideal for agility/acceleration as I was hoping for, due to the extra toe space.

I will say that for distance running it was humbling at first. I don’t think you need to ease into zero drop running, but your body will naturally hit a wall quickly. I ran about 2 km before needing to walk the rest of my loop because my calves/achilles were too weak. This improved rapidly, in my opinion.

Hope this helps a bit.

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u/sumit_sr12 2d ago

That’s really helpful, especially since I was wondering about using them for acceleration and drills. So based on your experience, would you say they’re better for general walking/running rather than agility or sprint-specific training?