Hit the Dirt: 8 Great Trail Running Shoes for Summer 2025
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Did you know that at least 50 percent of runners get injured every year? And if you’ve ever dealt with plantar fasciitis, IT band syndrome, runner’s knee, or any other common lower leg overuse injuries, you know very well how quickly running can go from being a fun, endorphin buzz to a miserable slog — or even time on the sidelines.
I used to run in fear that I would be one of those runners. I typically wore the same shoes most days, and often found myself feeling more stiff and more tired than I thought I should after runs. That all changed when I started rotating my shoes regularly.
I didn’t have a plan or research to back it up; I was just lucky because I got to enthusiastically wear-test a lot of different running shoes as a shoe reviewer. As a wear-tester I suddenly found myself with shoes for speed days, trail days, long days, recovery days … all different types of shoes from many different brands.
Despite heavy training periods, pregnancy and postpartum running, I felt stronger and more resilient than ever. Turns out there’s science to back this up.
Running shoe rotation is the purposeful act of cycling through several different running shoes throughout a week of training — and ideally avoiding wearing the same shoe within a 24-hour period., says Wes Miller, PT, FAAOMPT, of AntiFragile Physical Therapy in Asheville, North Carolina.
Shoe rotation involves having a quiver of shoes and running in different types of shoes for different types of runs, Miller says. Think tempo runs, intervals and fartleks, long runs and easy recovery days, even dog walks and errands that require some time on your feet. (While you should avoid wearing the shoes you regularly run in for non-running activities, you will benefit from varying your shoe choices for everyday wear in similar ways you do for running.)
“I think of shoe rotation in the same way I think about cross- training,” Miller says. “It changes up stresses on the body a great way to great resilience to repetitive loading.”
Admittedly, running shoes are expensive, and while it can feel like a big upfront expense to buy several pairs at once, developing a quiver of shoes over a few months or a year can help extend the life of each pair so you end up replacing them less frequently. (Remember it’s important to replace your running shoes every 300 to 500 miles, depending on wear.)
Studies like this one from 2015 show that thoughtful shoe rotation, when implemented during run training, alters the way your body loads and absorbs impact. Wearing different shoes for different runs reduces running’s repetitive stress, which makes you more injury resistant. But why?
The forces from hitting the ground repeatedly as you run are the leading cause of running injuries. The way we move when we run and the shoes we wear both affect the way our bodies absorb that stress.
The midsoles of running shoes are made from responsive foam cushioning compounds like EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate), Peba, Aliphatic TPU, or a blend of several, while the outsoles are made from a variety of rubber compounds. As you run in a specific pair of shoes over weeks and months, those materials both start to break down and also mold to your feet and develop based on your footstrike patterns.
While some modern materials are more resilient and durable than others, the combination of your stride repetition and the gradual breakdown of a shoe’s materials will change the way your body absorbs the impact of ground reaction forces and eventually lead to strains of the soft tissue (muscles, ligaments, tendons) throughout your lower kinematic chain.
Even subtle shifts in the way force is absorbed as you run can mean the difference between staying healthy and developing a nagging lower leg injury.
“If you’re constantly hitting the ground the same way with the same shoe, your body never gets a break,” Miller says. “Think of shoe rotation like having multiple bikes or golf clubs. Choose the shoe that’s best for the work you’re doing that day.”
If you’re running easy days, long runs and workouts with races sprinkled in, you’ll want multiple pairs of shoes to tackle each type of run. Physical therapist and noted running gait analyst Jay Dicharry, MPT, SCS, suggests runners rotate through at least three different kinds of shoes in their quiver: a cushioned trainer, a lightweight tempo/race shoe, and a less-cushioned, lower-to-the-ground style of shoe.
The cushioned trainer is the shoe you’ll run most of your miles in, because it will provide shock absorption and responsiveness for slow to moderately paced runs of any distance. Tempo/race shoes (which could be a racing super shoe or a super trainer) offer even greater resilience and energy return and are ideal for faster-paced efforts like tempo runs, interval workouts, intermittent fartlek efforts, and time trials.
Slightly less-cushioned, lower-to-the ground shoes can be tools to increase your ground feel and feedback and improve your running form, Miller says. You can also benefit from wearing “barely there” minimalist shoes in small doses because they can increase the stress in your bones and connective tissues, plus shift the muscle strain in your feet and lower legs. Those shoes will help you adapt, but, Dicharry says, you need to ease into that type of footwear over time — even if you’re an experienced runner who’s put in lots of miles in cushioned shoes.
“This three-shoe quiver will expose your body to a good bit of variety, which will help you log miles, build a stronger foundation in your feet, and run fast,” says Dicharry, the author of “Running Rewired.” “This approach will help you build tolerance for the new loads brought by new shoes. Your body will adapt, and it will flourish. Having the right tool for each of your running goals will help you build durability to run consistently, and to get more out of the sport you love.”
Having multiple models of cushioned training shoes will help you rotate between models and continually vary your stride pattern ever so slightly during your most frequent types of running, Miller says. Adding a trail shoe for off-road training can be a helpful addition, too.
However, he cautions against the urge to run frequently in high-stack, carbon-fiber-plated shoes with curvy, rocker geometries. While great for fast-paced running, the design of those shoes can reduce the feedback from each step, creating muscle weakness, and stride imbalance and instability. If worn too much, it will lead to inefficient movement patterns over time.
This is especially important for newer or slower runners who aren’t running at speeds that maximize a supershoe’s performance benefits.
This doesn’t mean that supershoes are inherently bad for all runners. They can have a purposeful place in your shoe rotation no matter how fast your marathon time — for example, for intervals, tempo efforts and races. But easy training days or recovery days? Not so much, MIller says.
“You lose that ground feel,” Miller says. “And when you don’t get feedback, you tend to hit the ground harder.”
OK, but before we go any further, let’s rewind just a little bit. If you’re new to running or covering fewer than 20 miles per week, Miller says it’s probably OK to stick to a singular pair. But running more than 20 miles per week in the same shoe comes with increased risks.
“When someone only wears one model of running shoe, their form becomes overly adapted to that shoe,” Miller says. “If that shoe starts to break down, or you run on a different surface, your body has a harder time adjusting.”
That doesn’t affect all runners equally. There’s more nuance here. Runners prone to overuse injuries often struggle with gait variability (natural changes in the way you move) and gait instability (a variety of counterproductive movements in the ankles and knees) more than consistently healthy runners.
“Healthy runners tend to have what we call internal consistency,” says Miller. “Their gait stays smooth and repeatable under the same conditions, and they can adapt it when something changes—like terrain, weather or even shoe type.”
In contrast, runners who are more injury-prone tend to struggle with adapting the way they run for various conditions. They may employ the exact same movement whether they’re running on the track or up a steep mountain even though they’d be better off if they changed their stride to meet the difference in terrain. This can easily increase stress in certain areas and lead to injury.
To break it down simply: If you’re injury-prone or running more than 20 miles per week, a shoe rotation strategy is not just helpful, it’s essential.
“Just like following a training program or optimizing diet, hydration and sleep, thinking critically about your footwear is just one more way to reduce the chance you lose training days to injury,” Miller says.
Whether you’re new to running or are an experienced marathon runner, consider a shoe rotation strategy if you aren’t already doing one. Your body will thank you.
“Running is an innate human activity,” Miller says. “It helps you understand what part of your body is hitting the ground… [it’s] a mindfulness activity.”
Contributing writer Ashley Arnold is the director of brand at Fleet Feet and an ultrarunner who lives in Missoula, Montana, with her husband and two young children. She tells stories through video, words and photos, and is most at home running trails, adventuring in wild places with her family and sipping coffee while eating cake.