Buying shoes is hard. With plenty of options out there, new technologies, ads, awards and blogs dedicated to helping you “find the perfect pair” or showing you the latest and greatest on the market, it’s easy to quickly chase down a rabbit hole of information. To help you stay afloat of it all, we’ve boiled it down to the three main categories of shoes there are, and the three best shortcuts to take in finding a great shoe worthy of your attention. Read on, and it’ll all become clear how we’ve made something so complicated, so easy.

How to find the perfect shoe for training 

The goal: For this shoe, you’re after a model that can last your training miles, feels great and matches your unique foot, gait, stride, body (and a host of other insights). Whether you’re just starting out or have been a runner all your life, the training shoe is your best friend and most loyal companion who is going to be there for you time after time, run after run.

How to find the perfect one: Speak to three running specialists. That’s it. Spend an afternoon heading in to three running specialty stores and have them recommend a few training shoes for you. The reason for this is that likely (if they know their stuff), at least two should recommend similar models for you, then it’s just a narrow choice of which you prefer. It’s unlikely a good run specialist will get it wrong; two definitely won’t, so armed with their opinions, you should be able to find your perfect training partner in less time than it takes do a training run itself.

How to find the perfect shoe for racing 

The goal: this is the shoe you wheel out on the big occasions. When it comes to the race or chasing down a personal best, this is your go to. It’s the Sunday best of footwear, and anytime you don this pair, magic happens.

How to find the perfect one: Probably the easiest of the three types of shoe to choose, find the sportstar in your field you most resemble (body shape-wise), and give the race day shoes they wear a try (provided they work with your run style). It’s the shortcut you need to find a pair you might not otherwise choose, so try it out for yourself and see how they go.

How to find the perfect shoe for recovery

The goal: close to a casual shoe, this is what you love to put on for those times after races, when taking it slow and steady, when comfort and support matter more than the time on the clock. Basically, these are the shoes you love to put on and find hard to take off because they feel so damn good.

How to find the perfect one: Ask a sports team physiotherapist, and see what shoes they’re wearing. These are the people working with runners who need the most attention when it comes to recovery, and they are experts when it comes to matters of the human body. Likely the shoes they wear will have comfort and support paramount to their make, and if not, the recommendations of what the physio tells you will likely be great for your body anyway.

One final piece of advice; once you’ve found that dream pair – that pair that ticks all the boxes and is everything you needed – stop looking! If you’ve been spending some time looking up reviews and options, stopping the search (even with a new pair in hand) can be one of the hardest things to do. So try these shortcut ways to find the best pair of shoes for you and be happy knowing you’ve made the right choice - then get out there and run them down, and stop searching (until the next new pair is needed, of course).