The Beast

By: Juan Caraballo

I had an interesting experience that I thought I would share with you. Now, I’ve done some running in my day, but I’ve never fully invested into the “right sneaker”. When I was in the military, we ran almost every day so I went through sneakers like they were going out of style. Because of the constant replacement of these sneakers, I found myself repeatedly leaning toward the cheapo sneakers just to get me by. Interestingly enough, the companies were willing to sell them to me no questions asked. Now I understand that business is business, but I was recently shown the difference between a company that will sell you what you want and one that will take the time to find out what you need.

As a customer, you obviously have the final say on what you purchase, but sometimes we need someone to save us from ourselves. I was recently recommended to a local sneaker store. Instead of letting me buy the cheapo version of any sneaker, they asked me what I was looking for. Soon after, they had me with my shoes off walking down this wooden plank and with my volunteered weight information, had four sneaker choices for me. It turns out that I have a collapsed arch and combining that with the 280 solid pounds that I move around, the selection got small very quickly. When all was said and done, I selected “The Beast” from Brooks shoes. It fits great, gives me the support I need and plenty of cushion for any length run I decide to push it to. Lately, my back is feeling better and I’m more comfortable during workouts which make it easier to continue on my path to greater weight loss.

Good luck with all of your future purchases, but be sure to take the time to find out if the equipment you want is truly something you need to get the best results out of your activities. Thank you for reading and I’ll see you around.