How We Research

Sole & Stride is a small editorial site, and this page explains exactly how its guides are made, where the information comes from, how often guides are updated, and how errors are corrected.

How a guide starts

Every guide starts with a reader and a problem: who is this guide for, and what decision does it have to help them make? A guide about running shoes is written for a person choosing a running shoe, not for a collector, and a guide about children's shoes is written for a parent measuring a growing foot. That question shapes everything that follows: what to research, what to compare, and what to leave out.

Information sources

Our main sources are the manufacturers' own published specifications: materials, construction, stack height, drop, weight, outsole design, and size charts. We compare those specifications across brands and models, so a claim about one shoe is always checked against its rivals. Where a guide touches on foot health, we draw on published podiatry guidance and on general medical information, and we say plainly where the guide is general information rather than medical advice. We also talk with running shop staff, walkers, and runners about what actually holds up in use, because a specification does not tell you how a shoe feels after a hundred miles. We do not invent test data, review scores, sales figures, or prices: where a number cannot be verified, the guide says so, and prices are given only as typical ranges as of November 2026.

What we do not do

We do not accept payment to recommend a product, to remove a criticism, or to influence a conclusion. We do not publish star ratings or numerical scores. We do not use brand logos or official product photographs. The photographs on this site are real photographs from free photo libraries — Wikimedia Commons, including photographs originally published on Unsplash — published under free licences and credited to their photographers at the foot of each page that uses one. A photograph is a generic category photograph: it shows a real shoe of the kind discussed, not necessarily a product from a brand reviewed on this site, and it does not imply that any brand endorses this site. We do not claim to be any brand's official site, and we do not sell shoes. This site currently contains no affiliate links at all. See our Editorial Policy and our Affiliate Disclosure.

Updating

Guides are reviewed when a model changes, when a price range becomes stale, when a reader reports an error, or at least once a year. A guide that has been updated shows its updated date at the top of the page. Brand reviews are reviewed on the same schedule, and a review that no longer reflects the current range is revised or withdrawn. Prices are the fastest thing to go stale, which is why they are given as typical ranges with a date rather than as exact figures.

Corrections

We aim to be accurate, and we correct errors promptly. If you spot an error, please tell us through the contact page or by email at [email protected], with the page title and a short description of what is wrong. Significant corrections are noted on the page itself. If a correction changes a recommendation, we say so, rather than quietly editing the conclusion.

Who writes the guides

All guides and reviews on this site are written by Alex Carter, the author and editor of Sole & Stride. See the About page for his background and for the editorial process each guide follows.