Do Recovery Shoes Deliver?
“Recovery shoes” have recently become popular among athletes of all levels. Designed with increased cushioning and arch-conforming support, they are intended for wear after high-intensity exercise to promote muscle recovery and discourage delayed-onset muscle soreness. They do feel like a soft hug for my feet after a long run, and they are unequivocally more supportive than walking barefoot on hard floors, but when I began a deeper search, it was difficult to find definitive research backing up the claims from some manufacturers that these shoes actually speed up recovery.
Here’s what I could find:
In a study that has not yet been peer-reviewed for publication, Oofos (a popular brand of recovery sandals and shoes) sponsored a trial comparing their recovery footwear to traditional running shoes in athletes’ cool-down routines (1).
Twenty healthy subjects were randomly assigned to wear either the same athletic shoes they wore in a standardized high-intensity workout or recovery shoes for cool-down walking sessions on a treadmill. The treadmill belts were outfitted with pressure mappers, allowing computer-aided gait analysis to measure variability in weight distribution, step length, and tempo during warm-up and cool-down treadmill walking.
What was actually being measured here?
Increased variability in weight distribution and timing when we walk are indicators of fatigue (2). Monitoring differences in gait this way allowed researchers to see whether footwear made even a subtle difference in how quickly this variability returned to baseline as subjects cooled down.
They found that the recovery shoes did have a significant impact on gait mechanics during cool-down walking. In post-exercise fatigue, recovery shoes shortened the amount of time it took for gait mechanics to return to pre-fatigue parameters—implying they helped speed up recovery.
What this does and does not actually prove:
While this data is intriguing, the design deserves a closer look—especially since it was sponsored by a recovery shoe company. The high-intensity exercise performed by these subjects was blood-flow-restricted squatting: a tourniquet occluding 80% of blood flow was placed on both thighs to maximize muscle fatigue. The exercise was easy to standardize and allowed subjects to achieve significant muscle fatigue, but it did not involve high-impact or long-duration weight-bearing, so it doesn’t necessarily replicate fatigue associated with endurance exercise.
What other research is out there?
While research appears to be sparse, I did find a 2017 study focused on distance running with novice marathon runners as subjects. After their race, they walked daily for one week in either recovery shoes (Masai Barefoot Technology, featuring a rocker-shaped sole) or the same shoes they trained and raced in. Researchers found that the group wearing recovery shoes did show physiological proof of faster recovery in both muscle texture and strength when compared to the control group who kept wearing their typical running shoes (3). These results are more convincing for endurance athletes, but either study could simply suggest that any change of footwear away from those worn during exercise could aid recovery.
Takeaways:
Research is limited but seems to suggest that strength, soreness, and gait mechanics can all benefit from the use of recovery shoes after exercise. Also importantly, no study has found footwear marketed as recovery shoes to be harmful or to hinder recovery. Until more research can prove any specific material or shape to be more effective, prioritize comfort when selecting your recovery shoes—and consult your PT for more individualized recommendations!
By Joanna Binney