Quote Originally Posted by Chair-man View Post
OK, so I did this and as it turns out I'm wearing out the outside of my heels more than the rest of my sole. An internet search of shoe wear says I have supination . It's only on the heel, the rest of my sole is wearing evenly. It's said to be not that uncommon and not a real problem.

If your wearing out the inside of your soles it's called pronation. Learn something everyday.

Here's a couple of photos of the bottoms of my La Sportiva Wildcat trail runners.
Bottoms
Bottoms.jpg


The heel
Heel.jpg


I'm just going to have to make a conscious effort to land on the center of my heel when I'm walking.
And now it's my turn to direct you back to previous posts

Supination and pronation are something that you should visit a good running store (or three really) to get "diagnosed" I say that in quotes because it isn't really an issue for most people, just a fact of life. It's also something worth getting a few opinions on. My general understanding as an untrained person- you stand in a neutral stance and your ankles either pitch in or out from neutral.

You may have heard the terms "neutral" and "stability" when shoe shopping. Neutral refers to a shoe with no corrective measure, Stability refers to a shoe that has various rubber composites or other structural features to support or counter act an issue like pronation or supination.

That said- back to the previous posts...
The woods walk is about a forefoot or midfoot placement to increase balance. Re-read some of the info and pics I posted about walking.
Even if you disagree with the medical part of heel strike vs midfoot or forefoot strike- Kephart's original observation that the very small heel is a poor surface to land on. Especially as to land on the heel requires it to be thrust out beyond your center of gravity. if it slips- you slip with it. The midfoot strike forces your body to land with your center of gravity over your whole foot- all force is downward. You can stand on a banana peel quite easily, but you can't heel strike onto one while in motion.

Stand with your feet together and pick one foot up- a slight shift of the hips will let you balance, hardly anything in your body will move. Next stand with one foot 6" forward, and try to stand on the forward foot. Hard without a full weight shift back to the original position. Now put your heel out 8" and try to stand on that- it don't work.

If you were only supinating- you would see wear across the whole outside edge of your shoe- not just the heel.

However if you were town walking with heel extended and toes pointed outward- you would see the wear pattern you have shown. That's what I see in your shoe. No wear in any area except your heel. No wear evenly on the heel because your toes are out, rather than pointed inward or neutral. Likely if you were to walk in the snow normally you would find your tracks are 12-16" apart at the toes, rather than the 8-10" mentioned when I discussed the width of single track trail. Your heels may fit on the balance beam, but your feet do not.

That's what I see in your shoes- but take a walk- see what you see. Hit a running store with a qualified salesperson, ask them what they see.