Somatosensory perception of running shoe mass

Abstract

Running shoes are often marketed based on mass. A total of 50 young adult males participated across two separate experiments to determine how well they could perceive the relative masses of five different running shoes using hands versus feet. For the foot portion, subjects were blindly fitted with the shoes and asked to rank their masses individually using visual analogue scales (VAS) and verbal rankings. For the hand portion, two different methods were used, one presenting all shoes simultaneously and the other presenting the shoes individually. Verbal accuracy and VAS scores correlated across subjects for the hand and foot, but accuracy in mass perception by the feet was 30% compared to 92% or 63% by the hand (depending on the method). These results indicate the foot perceives mass poorly compared to the hand, and that consumers' perception of shoe mass may come more from handling shoes versus wearing them.

Current Soccer Footwear, Its Role in Injuries and Potential for Improvement

“…The relationship between plantar pressure peak levels and perceived comfort was previously underlined in several studies 13 45 50 73 97 . The soccer shoe’s lack of protection against high peak pressures had already been pointed out by the 1990s 67 .…”

“…Slade et al reported that only 30% of players were able to accurately perceive the shoe weight 97 . A difference of weight greater than 140 g was required in order for most subjects to be able to identify the heaviest shoe model between those tested.…”

Sensory Perception of Varied Shoe Masses in Running

“…Several factors have to be considered when relating the JND and Weber fraction measurements to results presented in the literature. Slade et al ( 2014) 20 determined that an increase of 140g is the sensory threshold (JND) and the Weber fraction is 0.64 (the initial shoe mass is 220g). The difference in the JND may be due to the methodological difference in the original shoe masses of both studies, which is ∼ 63g.…”

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Physical performance and perception of foot discomfort during a soccer-specific match simulation. A comparison of football boots

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