9 Great Running Shoes

"We travel on gravel, dirt road or street

I wear my Adidas when I rock the beat

Now the Adidas I possess for one man is rare

Myself homeboy got fifty pair

Got blue and black cause I like to chill

And yellow and green when it's time to get ill"
                                                                                      My Adidas, RUN-DMC     

     I'm the kind of guy who
     1) wears shirts that were either gifts or from races
     2) pants until they get holes
     3) jackets for a lifetime.
     But shoes?  Now, shoes I love.  Maybe it is because my grandmother is Filipino and I could be distantly related to Imelda Marcos.  And specifically, I'm talking about sneakers.  Everyone looks cool in sneakers.  Your model is out there - if you can't find it you're not looking hard enough.
     Here are my 9 favorite sneakers I've worn in my life, in the order of most recent to earliest, which happens also to be from great to best.

9) Asics Bandito

                         

The Banditos were my first racing flats.  They were so much lighter than my trainers, I instantly dropped 30 seconds from my mile pace.  See the decor on the top of the heel and the tongue?  You better run fast.  I wore these at the Boston Marathon and I cling to my last pair of this discontinued shoe.

8) End YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary)

current pair

End's YMMV were made completely from recycled material, so that eases my conscience some from the dirty little secret that the production and disposal of running shoes is not doing the earth any favors.  But eco-friendliness aside, these shoes are super comfortable for my particularly narrow foot.  Another discontinued shoe, the picture on the right is of my last beloved.  I'll wear these until they fall off my feet.

7) Asics Trail Attack

I won my first big race in the Trail Attacks, the North Face 50K in 2008.  I started to think red was my lucky color.  These shoes are light and grabby, like running with dog paws.  

6) Nike Daybreak

When I finally hit size 10.5 at age 13, the Daybreak was the first of many shoes I stole from my grandfather (I grew up with my grandparents).  How fitting.  I slipped out in these most mornings before school for a quick 3 miler.

5) Puma Fast Rider

OK, now this shoe is ugly, probably better suited for walking on the moon than running.  But with a fresh pair of tube socks the Fast Rider got me through my first Bay to Breakers.  I don't remember ever wearing them again.

4) Adidas Stan Smith

So who didn't have a pair of these?  If your main goal as a kid in the early Eighties was to fit in, the Stan Smith was your shoe.  It was a playground workhorse, a good all-around shoe for every sport.  This was probably the only time I wore the same shoes as the girl sitting next to me in class.

3) Puma Suede

The Suede was the first pair of shoes I put up on the window sill near my bed before I went to sleep.  'Nuff said.

2) Vans Era style #95

Not a running shoe per se, but when my friends and I got caught ding dong ditching I probably ran the fastest 400 meters of my life in these Dogtowns.  The original Vans Off the Wall store was two blocks away from my childhood home in Torrance.  I idolized the older kids shod in Eras who could skate in empty pools.  If the sincerest form of flattery is imitation, well...heck, I still wear red and blue.

1) Adidas SL 76

SL stands for Super Light.  You wore this shoe when challenged to see if you were the fastest kid on the block.  I often had to settle for cheap knock-offs from the Get or Thrifty (2 stripes, 4 stripes), but when I landed a pair of these I was invincible, or so I thought in my mind.  Bruce Jenner wore these when he won the Olympic decathlon in 1976.  Bruce Jenner could do it all.  To have a piece of your hero that you could wear everyday was empowering.

But you still have to do the running yourself, no matter what show you wear.