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* '''Contrast Runs'''. Because our senses are good at detecting change, but quickly adapt to the situation is "normal", I found it valuable to swap between shoes during a run. Care must be taken using this technique is a cold shoe feels quite different to one that is warmed up, but swapping back and forth between two similar shoes quickly highlights the differences.
* '''Odd Shoes'''. A more extreme version of this contrast approach is to wear a different shoe on each foot. This is a wonderful way of highlighting the differences, but it entails a significant injury risk, so caution is required.
* '''Metrics'''. Some things are I like to back up my subjective analysis with some objective measurements. ** '''Weight'''. This is an easy one using a scale.** '''Height & Drop'''. Measuring the height of the sole is not as easy as it seems because you have to decide where to measure on a shoe, like its weight, thickness, etcfrom. I measure from under the ball of the foot for the forefoot measurement and under the ball of the heel for rear foot.The difference is the drop, but Ialso measure again with weight in the shoe to find out a more realistic value is for the drop. ** '''Flexibility''ve also found '. It's reasonably easy to measure the force it useful takes to measure bend a shoe, but the way a shoebends may not match how your foot moves, so there is some subjectivity in this measurement. ** '''Cushioning'''s hardness and cushioning. Measuring the cushioning is surprisingly complex, as it includes both static and dynamic behaviors. I've found the standard approaches to measuring cushioning do not seem to reflect the perceived cushioning, so I've spent time developing my own equipment and techniques.** '''Cold Cushioning'''. I've started to look at the cushioning that a shoe provides when it's been in a freezer (~10f/-10c).
* '''Dissection'''. I find it useful to [[Shoe Dissection| dissect some of the shoes]] to reveal their inner construction. I don't do this all the shoes due to the cost. (I buy all my shoes through normal retail outlets, so these reviews are expensive to produce.)