The Conscious Indian Runner: Why We Choose Comfort Over Hype
How Indian Runners stay practical in a world of super shoe marketing, choosing comfort and cushioning over carbon plates as the performance-focused community remains nascent.
Monday mornings take their own time to pace up, just like I do when I run. Some of my best long runs have happened when I've allowed my body to decide its own pace. On one such Monday morning, a colleague asked me to join him as he was about to buy new ASICS shoes. He was recovering from a knee injury, and my job was to give him company. Initially, I thought he'd brought me along because everyone at work knows my love for running and running shoes. But that wasn't the case.
He ended up buying ASICS shoes that would help with both his tennis and injury recovery. The only concern? The shoes exceeded his budget by ₹5,000. My suggestion was that he should go for it since they were for his sport and comfort. Later, he told me he wouldn't spend more than ₹5,000 on sports shoes.
A few days later, another colleague who occasionally runs wanted to purchase new running shoes. Since budget wasn't a concern for her, I suggested the Puma Nitro 3 and advised her to visit a nearby store to check the fit. I now resist buying running shoes online – you hardly get any deals, and there's a growing concern about fake products. She went to the store, liked the shoes, but waited a month to get a deal online. I'd say she was just lucky.
Price Drives Everything
Price plays a big role for Indian consumers. This holds for Indian runners who give weightage to comfort over performance, along with price and availability. In other words, Indian runners are practical, peer-influenced, and value-driven, according to The State of Running Shoes 2025, published by GeeksOnFeet.
According to their analysis based on publicly shared Strava activities (2,800+ activities tagged with shoes) from the 2025 Mumbai Marathon, ASICS emerged as the clear winner across both full and half marathons. ASICS Novablast and Gel-Nimbus are strong contenders among mid-pack runners, while the stability shoe Gel-Kayano rises to the top among 5-6 hour finishers. This represents the broad base of runners preferring comfort over performance and price.
The Carbon Plate Reality
Runners who opt and train for performance generally tend to move toward carbon-plated shoes – a small but growing section. According to the report, "The Adidas Adizero Adios Pro tops the charts for sub-3:30 runners. Close behind, the Nike Vaporfly and Alphafly take prominent spots among the fastest, affirming their reputation as race-day favorites."
Carbon-plated shoes are expensive, lightweight, and give you a slight edge on race day. But here's what puts everything in perspective: the Indian marathon record was set in 1978 by Shivnath Singh with a time of 2 hours 12 minutes. We have yet to beat that in a world of fancy super shoes.
Finally, it's not about carbon or nylon-plated shoes – it's your training that will improve your timing on race day. The average Indian runner understands this and remains value-driven.
Brand Strategies in India
With the Indian running community growing, especially after COVID, brands are increasing their investments in better products and marketing. ASICS has caught the pulse well, offering a wide range of shoes to satisfy Indian runners, offline race partnerships, working with the running community, and maintaining a strong in-store push. Nike has recently shown interest in Indian runners with its Nike After Dark Tour, created to celebrate women who run and reclaim the night. The product fit for the event featured responsive, supportive, and cushioning shoes.
Puma and Saucony are my two go-to brands for running shoes. Saucony, which has decent shoes for various segments, competed in India on price. But due to manufacturing issues, the Indian outlet is now closed, and online retailers are sourcing products from Vietnam, which can be tricky.
If I had to close my eyes and pick one shoe for everything – from daily training to race day to running 75km – it would be the Puma Deviate Nitro 2/3. Until 2023, the company offered decent discounts, but those dried up after they signed Milind Soman as brand ambassador. The torchbearer of barefoot running was suddenly talking about the comfort of Nitro shoes. Puma has a wide range of running shoes but has somehow failed to capture the attention of Indian runners.
A recent update from Milind on Instagram talks about Puma's Velocity Nitro 3 – the brand's cushioning offering.
Maybe Puma needs to borrow some tricks from ASICS. This year, it has finally tied up with the Bangalore Marathon as the official sportswear partner. It will be interesting to see if ASICS puts up a stall alongside Puma under the same roof.
The Testing Challenge
HOKA offers a trial period of one month for its shoes. I don't know if this will ever be available in India, but you get to know a running shoe only after you've run 50-60km in it. In India, most bigger brand retail stores don't have treadmills, and if they do, they're not running on that particular day.
Over the years, after spending most of my money on running shoes, I've somehow figured out what works for me since every foot is different. I started running seriously in 2019 to become a better version of myself and take control of my life. When I started, I went for daily trainers that were good for building mileage. After that, buying running shoes became a vice for me. But in the last few years, I've understood that I'm not meant for high-cushion shoes.
As Murakami said, "Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. Say you're running and you think, 'Man, this hurts, I can't take it anymore.' The 'hurt' part is an unavoidable reality, but whether or not you can stand anymore is up to the runner himself."
Recently, someone stopped me and asked how to get into running without any pain. That's like wanting to find love without any heartbreaks. There are ways to reduce the pain by making the body strong and spending time in the gym – I run six days a week. I won't say you should go crazy like me, but if you don't want a bleeding bank account, be the practical Indian runner.