A Story About My Reluctant Conversion to On Sneakers

I bet a lot of you thought you’d never see the day that I’d be writing about On sneakers—or the like. In reality, I probably never thought I’d be writing about these either.

But as you age, and things start to change in your body, you start to think differently. You perceive the world differently. You perceive your body differently. Your health differently. And you come to certain realizations.

The reality is, I’m 42 now. I’m not 24. And my body no longer acts the same.

And don’t get me wrong. This isn’t a post cheering on the push of sneakers and ultimate comfort and all of that. If you know me, you know that’s not happening anytime soon.

But I did get some feedback that people enjoyed my more creative writing—not necessarily always about shoes, but about life—and I thought I would share some of what I feel are very realistic things us men go through as we age. Sure, when you’re young, you never think you’re going to get there.

But it hits us all.

And lately, one of those realizations has been that I actually need running shoes for bad knees—or at least knees that are starting to remind me that I’m no longer 24.

So here’s a story about getting older, wearing shoes that will help keep you fit (so that you can continue wearing the good ones), and my experience coming to terms with that.

The Basketball Game That Nearly Killed Me

About a year ago, I was playing basketball with a friend of mine. We played a game of one-on-one to 21, and then some teenagers challenged us to a game of three-on-three.

After the one-on-one game, I was nearly dead. I could barely move.

But there was such peer pressure on us to play three-on-three. My friend, who is in better shape than I am and about 10 years younger, wanted to keep playing, so I was basically bullied into continuing although I was already exhausted.

After an hour and a half, maybe two hours, of playing basketball, I was finished.

I had been wearing some pretty comfortable Nike running shoes. They weren’t basketball shoes, granted, but I actually figured running shoes would have decent cushioning for striking concrete. I wasn’t exactly playing at NBA level, so ankle support wasn’t my biggest concern.

What I didn’t expect was needing about three to four weeks to recover.

I swear, my knees were aching for what felt like forever. I couldn’t fathom it. I had never experienced that before.

Granted, I won’t lie: I hadn’t been working out for quite a while. Running, exercising, etc. And over the last few years, whenever I did decide to run here and there, I could feel my knees getting weaker and weaker.

And that starts to worry you as you age.

I was a very athletic person my entire life. Then you get older and start feeling things you’ve never felt before, and you start thinking, Jeez, I really need to protect myself here.

I don’t want to get weak, so to speak. I don’t want to let my muscles and bones decay, deteriorate, get soft, whatever you want to call it. I want to strengthen them.

That basketball game was probably the first big wake-up call.

Then Came the Ugly Sneakers

Fast-forward to May of this year when I was in London.

I always stop at this sneaker store at Heathrow Airport and look for a pair of shoes for my wife. And weirdly, miraculously, they never seem to have her size.

Good for me. Bad for her.

This time, though, I noticed an entire wall of On sneakers and Hokas.

And by this point I had been seeing these things everywhere. Walking around New York City, everybody seemed to be wearing them. They seemingly came out of nowhere two or three years ago.

I had never even heard of On before suddenly seeing them on everybody’s feet.

I know Roger Federer is involved with them somehow, but I don’t really follow tennis—or much sport these days, to be honest—so I had completely missed the memo.

But I was curious.

Why were these two brands suddenly taking America by storm? And apparently not only America, considering I was standing in London Heathrow looking at an entire wall of them.

So I thought, You know what? Let me try one on.

I don’t like bothering salespeople when I know I’m not going to buy anything, so I just found one in my size and slipped it on.

And I thought:

Wow.

As ugly as these are, they’re pretty damn comfortable.

Now, granted, I still didn’t like them.

I don’t believe in wearing these types of sneakers in the streets every day, all day. That’s not what this post is about. I haven’t suddenly abandoned everything I’ve been preaching for the last 15 years.

But I’m also not a liar.

Comfort is comfort. Cushion is cushion.

And while I don’t necessarily love that kind of softness in a day-to-day shoe—I like structure, I like support—when you’re doing something athletic and pounding pavement, your knees need something to soften that blow.

I filed that thought away and carried on with my life.

Schweitzer Mountain Reminded Me Again

Fast-forward again to two days ago.

I went hiking up Schweitzer Mountain with my family, wearing those same Nikes I had played basketball in the year before.

Schweitzer is no small hill. We were out there for probably three or four hours. Granted, we stopped to pick huckleberries and do various things along the way. And we were with a few weaker links who needed frequent breathing breaks, water sips, snacks, and all of that.

But still, it was a good few hours on my feet.

At the end of the night, when we were all already beat, we took my sister’s three dogs out for a walk. Everybody started picking up the pace for a light jog, so I started jogging too.

And there they were again.

My knees.

Nope.

I could feel it immediately.

I thought, I can’t do this. I need something that’s actually going to support my knees and help me not blow them out at the young age of 42.

Because the other reality here is that I didn’t exercise nearly enough while living on the East Coast.

Hardly at all, if I’m being truthful.

I was consumed by work, stress, the shop, traveling to and from New York, and everything else. I simply never allowed myself the time.

But I want to change that.

So, Yes, The Shoe Snob Bought a Pair of On Running Shoes

The following day we went shopping so I could show my wife that where we now live does, in fact, have some semblance of city life.

Albeit 45 minutes away.

Which, actually, I think is the perfect distance.

We went into Nordstrom Rack and I thought to myself, I want to start running. I don’t have a proper pair of running shoes. I need to get some.

Now, I’m not going to lie. If I’m buying running shoes, I want to bargain hunt.

The prices of sneakers these days are hard for my brain to accept. And I’m not going to sit here and say they’re poorly made because many of them are actually highly technical shoes. I don’t necessarily think they’re overpriced for what you get, either. They last a long time and, as I was about to discover, they do their job very well.

But my mind still has a hard time paying full price for them.

Plus, I’d just spent a ton of money moving from New Jersey to Idaho.

So, Nordstrom Rack it was.

And there they were.

A pair of On sneakers, in my size, that were—let’s call them—semi-attractive.

Nothing you would catch me dead wearing as a day-to-day shoe.

But for running? Fine.

They were comfortable. They were lightweight. They didn’t look like boats strapped to my feet, which I cannot stand about so many modern running shoes with their massively oversized soles.

These were about as slim as I could find.

Comfortable. Light. Decent-looking.

And a decent price.

Sold.

Running Shoes for Bad Knees: And Damn It, They Work

Yesterday, I got up, did what I felt was urgent for work, and then went for a run.

I put on those On sneakers and, let me tell you, my knees were very pleased with the results.

And so was I.

They were comfortable. They were lightweight. And most importantly, they gave me the cushioning I had clearly been missing while running—the kind that made my knees feel considerably better than they did in my old Nikes.

And that matters because those knees protect a very important part of my lifestyle: staying upright so I can continue wearing all of my other nice shoes.

And I just found the whole thing interesting.

This cycle of first seeing these sneakers, loathing them, trying them on out of curiosity, and then eventually buying a pair myself.

But—and this is an important but—I bought them for their intended use.

Exercise. Running. Walking the dogs.

Not strolling around New York City in them. Not going out to dinner in them. Not pairing them with trousers and deciding that because they’re comfortable, they’re suddenly appropriate everywhere.

That, in my mind, is still appalling.

Some of you will probably make fun of me for buying them. And that’s okay.

Because as I get older, I remain The Shoe Snob. But I also have to think about my health and what’s important.

And as each day passes in your 40s, you start feeling more and more things.

I want to protect myself from premature decay, so to speak. And that means exercising, keeping fit, strengthening my body and, yes, utilizing the proper footwear to do so.

There’s a Time and Place for Everything

So in terms of comfort and their intended purpose—AKA running—I give these shoes a very high rating.

Again, I didn’t buy them for looks. I simply chose the pair I found most attractive.

You won’t find me wearing them day-to-day. They will strictly and forever be my running shoes. Maybe dog-walking shoes. Hiking shoes. Things of that nature.

And you know what? The Hokas are comfortable too. I can’t lie.

I’ll do my best to Shoe Snob it up and find what I deem to be the most attractive version of these things, but if you’re reading this thinking, Great, Justin says I should go buy a pair of Ons to wear every day, that’s not my message here.

Get a loafer or a nice leather sneaker for ‘elegant comfort’ in the city.

But if you need a solid running shoe and you’re approaching your 40s—or you’re like me, and your knees are already starting to tell you something—then yes, these are a good shout.

If you’re running in some old Nikes or whatever else and they’re simply not cutting it anymore, I highly recommend giving something like On or Hoka a try.

Your knees might thank you.

And your knees are quite important if you plan on continuing to wear beautiful shoes for another 40 years.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post.

I want to try to do more reflective posts like this. When I recently asked people about topics I could write about, this is really what I meant.

I want to share more personal things that happen in everyday life. Sometimes they’ll be tied directly into shoes. Sometimes maybe not. But if they’re tied into shoes, style, getting older, life, or whatever else happens to be going through my head, then I think there’s a place for them here.

Hopefully I can turn those everyday occurrences into something interesting—and maybe give you a small laugh along the way.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

And do stay tuned for more.

—Justin FitzPatrick, The Shoe Snob

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