Running on a shoestring budget: How to identify and find the best deals on running shoes
Insider advice from a former industry expert
My dream job growing up was to work in athletic footwear, and I was lucky enough to have spent a number of years working as a running shoe salesman and store manager (both big box and specialty) in addition to working at the corporate office of Dick’s Sporting Goods, where I worked in the socks department. It was really fun to go from selling the socks to buying the socks.
Although I'm over a decade removed from those days (when I was faster and my knees didn’t hurt as much -_-), I still love to shop for running shoes. I purchase ~10 pairs a year and spend ~$500 in total on them. All of the shoes I buy have high retail MSRPs (usually between $120 and $180) meant for serious running, I avoid the ~$50 junky entry-level shoes that you see on display at places like Kohls (never buy these!). Do the math, and I’m spending ~$50 per pair. If you know how to shop, you can buy the good stuff at the price of the junky stuff.
Curious to learn more about how to do this? Keep reading.
Unit Economics
The majority of people who have never worked in retail are unaware of how much money or gross margin retailers make on products, so many don’t have a sense of “what a good deal” is. My framework for thinking about buying shoes (and how many) is centered around minimizing the amount of profit the retailer makes.
I’ll walk through a hypothetical example of the Nike Infinity React 2 which has a retail price of $160. I recently purchased 3 pairs for $40 each from the Nike Outlet, that is 75% off!
The value chain of this example running shoe (or any shoe, for that matter) looks approximately something like this.
- Retail (e.g., Dick’s Sporting Goods) — $160, 50% Margin
- Wholesale (e.g., Nike) — $80, 50% Margin
- Manufacturing (factory) — $40
If you bought this shoe at full price from Dick’s, they would make $80 and Nike would make $40. Since I bought it from the Nike Outlet for $40, the only party that made any money here is the factory—this is the hallmark of an amazing deal. You should aim to buy shoes at their manufacturing cost or less if you can swing it. Here’s a quick framework for thinking about how good a deal is:
Going to a flagship retail store and buying a full priced shoe with no discount is a really bad deal. It's extremely tempting; these places look like a cross between a club and a museum with sick vibes, and I'm frequently tempted, but I have to resist because I know I'm being duped. If you want to buy it purely for the experience of the salesperson telling you how your new kicks will make you run 100M at the pace Eliud Kipchoge runs the marathon, be my guest. Just keep in mind that what you’re paying for is partly a luxury experience.
The only time you should be purchasing shoes at full price is from your local specialty running store. They have experts on staff to help you identify what kind of shoe and size (you’d be surprised how many people are wearing the wrong size shoe) you need by analyzing your gait, which is a fantastic service for newer runners who don’t know what they’re looking for.
I felt a lot of internal conflict when writing this article because, having worked for quite a bit at a specialty running store and poured my heart and soul into running (pun intended) that business, someone like myself would be their worst nightmare. Supporting local businesses is near and dear to my heart, but it’s super hard to balance that with a good deal (and deals are rare here). Given the market dynamics, local specialty running retail has been on the decline, with many failing or merging into larger chains. Truly independent ones are few and far between. Some of the chains look like local stores in feel and appearance (e.g., Fleet Feet, Jackrabbit — which was once a bunch of local stores but is now owned by PE), but they’re just wolves in sheep’s clothing. If you’re going to go this route, do your due diligence and make sure it’s actually an independently owned shop and not one of these chains in disguise.
General Tips for Bargain Hunting
Here are some general tips for finding great deals on shoes.
- Last Seasons Model — discounts on current season models are uncommon, but discounts on last seasons model are common. Running shoe models usually don’t change much from year-to-year, they are kinda of like cars where there’s one major refresh every 3–5 years, but unlike cars I don’t think the “big refresh” matters as much, the price point is much lower.
- Color Flexibility — discounts are more common on color-ways that are a bit funky looking and not mainstream. Some people are really fixated on the color of their running shoes for some reason, I personally don’t care and would recommend that you don’t either. It’s not like you are going to the club in these or anything. Sometimes you can have the same model shoe have a big difference price because of the color — just save your money and go with the cheaper one.
- Brand Agnostic— while some people are creatures of habit and will only buy one brand (and sometimes one model) of shoe, that really limits the deals that you can get as all your eggs are in one basket and you have to always wait for that model to go on sale. I personally enjoy trying new makes and models of shoes — this also has the benefit of making it much more likely that you will find a good deal.
- Non-Mainstream Channels — Flagship stores, sporting goods retailers, and discounters are never going to have really great deals. They have certain standards to uphold with regards to unit economics and branding, so you rarely find screaming deals. At best you can usually only get 30% off unless you dumpster dive in the clearance junk open-box pile. Some of the places you can actually find really great deals at 50% off or more are factory outlets, Joe’s New Balance , Running Warehouse, and sometimes the direct-to-consumer websites of brands (Asics and Saucony particularly).
Brand Discount Propensity
One of the things I’ve noticed in my shopping adventures is that brands vary in their level of discount, both in amount and frequency. This is my general sense of the level of discounting that you can expect to find on some of the most popular running brands.
On and Hoka are the most in-vogue right now (with funky non-traditional mid-sole technology), so there’s limited need to discount.
Brooks and Mizuno typically don’t discount much — they’re highly targeted products for specialty running and can keep inventories leaner, so they have less overstock. They also do not have a major presence of physical outlet stores.
Asics, Saucony, New Balance, Nike, Adidas, they sell to a broad spectrum of runners so you’re more likely to find promotions and discounts. They also have significant networks of outlet stores, those can be absolute goldmines ( especially when they run storewide promos on-top of existing discounts, such as Nike’s 30% off). You can get something that’s already 50% off and then get an additional 30% off.
Skechers is a sketchy running shoe brand and Reebok is not really a serious participant in the market, so I wouldn’t recommend buying them, but you can often find some really great deals.
Bonus — Socks
While retailers "win" by selling shoes, the real gold and gross margins are found in socks. Whereas a shoe has a 45–50% gross margin, socks come in higher at 60–80%.
When I sold shoes at Dick’s Sporting Goods, a sales acronym that was taught was “SWEET” or “Socks with each and every transaction." Everyone wears socks so it’s an easy upsell to customers—not to mention the highly favorable margin. It’s easier to manage inventories of socks as well as they tend to be 1) less seasonal and 2) have smaller range of sizes, so gross margin % as a business ends up even higher (due to less discounting/waste).
You may now be thinking that you’ll never want to buy socks from a retailer again because of the insane gross margin. But everyone needs socks, so you’ll have to pull the trigger eventually.
When you do get socks for serious running purposes, don’t go for the basic 6 pack socks!!! You may be tempted because the price per pair seems attractive, but trust me, it is well worth investing in several pairs of specialty running socks (e.g., Feetures or Balega). They have much better arch support and last for significantly longer. $15–20 for a pair of socks sounds expensive, but you can often find discounts of 30–50% to ease the damage to your wallet. When you can get them for $10, buy yourself a dozen and put them on rotation. Your feet will thank you.
Hope you enjoyed the article! Happy shopping :D
