Newtons?

I love mine, and I wear orthodics.  I won my pair in a store promotion...the webbing ripped at 395 miles and newton replace them for free with the 09 model that has reinforced webbing.  They are a nice light shoe.  There are several nice light shoes for less than 169 bucks....but these seem to work for me well. I'll buy my next pair.  They helped with my shin splints.

I know there are a few places in Boulder to get them (that's their headquarters). Not sure about the south side.

Are you in custom orthotics or generic OTC ones? If they are custom and you are still having issues with them, then I'd go back to whomever made them to discuss your problems and get them adjusted. If you get your orthotic dialed in properly and in a good neutral shoe, you should get a fit that is similar or better then the Newtons.

I've gotten 2 pairs from the 24 Hours of Triathlon (which Newton sponsors). I like them. If you are already trying to forefoot strike, these will help, it's not an automatic thing. You can still heel-strike the heck out of them if you try!

You may feel some new muscle tightness during break-in - the Newton website suggests walking in them a bit (or maybe short runs would be fine, too) before training in them and I agree.

I am not sure, however, that they'd be great for a bigger runner. I'm not small (nor huge) - I ran a marathon in these on pavement and felt that the balls of my feet were completely trashed afterwards. I've done several marathons and ultra marathons and have not had this problem before. I'm not sure if it was the pavement, the shoes, some weird biomechanical thing that I'd changed, or what. So, if you are a guy or gal that had once thought the Brooks Beast or Athena was the perfect shoe, be careful with longer distances in these and build up gradually. (I sort of went from zero to 60 for that marathon - skipping most of the intermediate distance training in those shoes - thus did not have any really long runs to test them out on - so can't truly blame the shoes). If, on the other hand, you are 6 ft tall and weigh 135 pounds, go for it.

Since then, I have weaned myself off of orthotics in the past 2 years and attribute part of that to wearing very flexible shoes and forefoot striking, both of which are good in this shoe.

My biggest practical complaint is that the mesh, while cool, lets in lots of sand and tiny gravel.
-Helen

I also have 2 pairs of Newtons.
I like them for shorter distances on pavement - 5ks mostly.
I like a little more support and cushioning in my shoes when I run anything longer than 3 or 4 miles, but that is my personal preference.
If you like to run trails of any type (dirt, gravel, sand), then forget it. You will wind up with a shoeful of gunk since they have mesh in the construction.
They definitely take some breaking-in, so go easy on them until you get used to the shoes. They are supposed to mimic running barefoot which I've read is a good thing for your feet.

I'm not sure where to buy them, though. You could enter the 8/24 hours of triathlon and get a sweet deal on the shoes.

Dee

I love mine. I also have PF, and I seem to do better with my Newtons than anything else. I recently went up to Boulder and they made orthotics for me. They are by far the most comfortable, lightest orthotics I've tried. Their customer service is top notch. I'm not affiliated with them in any way. Just really like them.

Thanks for the input!
I drove up to the Newton Running Lab last Friday and talked with a few of the guys there.  They actually recommended I wait to try the Newtons until my feet feel better, which I didn't expect.  I would have guessed that they would push me into their shoe regardless.  I also had some new orthotics made as my old ones seemed to be causing me more than grief than help.  $270 out the door and they were ready the next day!
Since my heel pain seems to be related more to a wimpy fat pad under my heel, I think the Newtons might be good for me, as it would encourage more midfoot striking and limit my heel contact.  Unfortunately, the price is ridiculous and I think their price point keeps A LOT of people out of their shoes that might at least try them once for a cheaper amount.

BTW-  I did try on the shoes and ran a little.  They are certainly different.  You can, without a doubt, heel strike the crap out of them so it does require you to work on your gait if you want to use the shoe effectively.

For you Newton runners, are you able to run long runs/race in them?

At the risk of sounding jaded or worse, I have to say regardless of whether or not the Newton shoe is a good shoe, it is priced way too high and I doubt seriously that it has any ability to reduce or limit injury. In fact no shoe regardless of how much support can honestly say that it can reduce or limit injury. There has been much evidence to the contrary and recent studies have suggested that less is more.

The problem with looking at shoes for support and/or fixing mechanical inefficiencies (might be true of orthotics too) is that they tend to inhibit the normal adaptation of associated running muscles, tendons, etc. I'm not saying that we should run barefoot, I'm just saying that nearly any quality shoe on the market today will work for just about anyone. The real issues are fit, comfort and style preference.

Athletes, myself included, tend to get caught up in gadgetry, marketing and quick fix ideas - I think this is especially true of triathletes - when simply training smart and trusting our limbs to adapt is really all there is to running.

Far more important than the type of shoe we run in is how long we run in that shoe. If you run a lot, the cost of shoe when replaced frequently, is a huge factor. By the way, frequent running is the key to injury prevention... So my take is buy a good quality neutral shoe. Run often and replace your shoes regularly (every 3-4 hundred miles). Most neutral trainers are in the $80 range. Beefy support shoes like the Ascics Kayano are in the $140 range. What are you really buying? Ask yourself this: did the runners of the 60s, 70s and 80s suffer a higher injury rate than runners today? The truth is NO and some have pointed out that injury rates have increased with our reliance on support trainers.

I'm not a rich guy. I can't spend $170 dollars on a pair of running shoes every 2 months. That is a LOT of money especially considering that I have run over 2k per year for the past 6 years. I think if I ran in a shoe that was that expensive, I would run in it longer than I should. That would probably cause more risk of injury than it would tend to prevent. I want to continue running long, hard and healthy, I suggest believe more in yourself and less on gimmicks. You will be a much better runner with fewer injuries because of it. With that said, If you are cool with the cost of a pair of Newtons, and you change them out regularly, they are no worse than an $80 neutral trainer.

I do think they look sexy! My friend - and super talented runner, Rachel - has a pair of pink ones that look hot!

I think more of the answer to PF and achilles is foam rolling, stretching, corrective exercises.
The right shoe definitely helps but it won't really help in the long run if the muscular imbalances are not being taken care of.
Hopefully you have a good physical therapist or personal trainer helping you with the exercises!