What to Do When Your Running Shoe Is Discontinued

Published March 1, 2018 04:30PM

Beth Risdon provides a few humorous (and a couple of practical) solutions to dealing with the discontinuation of your favorite running shoe.

If you’ve been running long enough, you have probably experienced this common problem. Just when you find the perfect running shoe—the one that feels like you are skipping on clouds, makes you run like the wind and thrillingly touches your “sole”—the shoe gets discontinued.

After going through the proper stages of grieving, it is time to find acceptance and move on. How does one do this after such a tragic loss? Simply follow these easy steps:

3. Immediately visit all online stores that carry your shoe (yes, all 1,002 of them) and stockpile pairs in your size. Check eBay as well. However, this is a temporary solution. Eventually you are going to run out of options and move on to a new shoe model.

4. Once you have exhausted all online options, email the shoe company that has discontinued your shoes. Try not to use foul language as you kindly ask them to reinstate your shoe. When they tell you “no,” take a breath and ask them to recommend a shoe that is similar to the one that has been discontinued.

5. As an outlet of expression, write an open letter to the company that discontinued your shoes. Let it all out and share memories of your time with your shoes. Expose your anger and disappointment. Obviously you do not have to send the letter if you don’t want to. This is a therapeutic exercise and one that solely exists to help you to cope and move on.

6. If all else fails, stop running altogether. Take up a sport such as swimming where you don’t need shoes and will never run the risk of encountering this type of loss again.

7. If you have had no luck with the aforementioned options, visit your local running store. Tell them your sob story and then let them know what you loved about your previous shoes. The experts at a running store can help to find a shoe that might work for you. Because these people actually know what they are talking about.

8. It is true that “losing” your favorite shoe at the whim of a company is upsetting. You need to know, however, that you will eventually discover a new shoe that works for you. Losing something you hold so dearly forces you to branch out and expand your horizons. Change encourages flexibility, open-mindedness and progress. As an unknown poet once said, “Don’t be afraid of change. You might lose something good, but you’ll gain something better.”