The Reshod Difference
The holy grail of every race walker is the finding the perfect race walking shoes. Over the decades I’ve been involved in the sport, there were just a handful of attempts to create a special shoe designed specifically for race walking. The first I saw was a pair from Adidas. They were paper thin and had rock solid shoes that only served to strain your shins even more than done by race walking on it’s own. I couldn’t even get through a workout in them. Next came New Balance, who almost everyone agreed, put out a great product. The problem was they abandoned it and left the race walking community hanging. Along the way Hersey Custom Shoes put out a reasonable shoe that fit some people’s needs. However, they were super expensive and required long waiting times to actually get them.

Personally, I really like the Decathlon’s NewFeel race walking shoe. I started writing a review only to get a link for the article and find none of the common sizes in stock. I emailed Decathlon and got no reply. Where’s a race walker to turn?

Enter Reshod Walking Shoes. Founded in 2008 by Carmen Jackinsky, a race walker as well as an experienced professional in fit and wear testing footwear, who cares about race walking, has taken a bold step. She started her own shoe company with the goal of producing a quality race walking shoe. Move over Elon, Carmen has a bigger challenge than you do. To be honest, I wasn't thrilled with the first product she produced, which modified existing shoes with her own patented bottom. But, it gave Carmen a lot of experience and she took that knowledge and created two shoes from scratch: Reshod Pushover Walking Shoe (red) and the Coach Carmen Race Walking Shoe (blue whose weight are M5.5/W7 is 7.5 oz. M9/W10.5 is 8.5 oz). Both shoes run true to size.

I haven’t tried the Pushovers, but I did walk in the Coach Carmens. While I only walked in them for a few minutes, they felt comfortable immediately. I’ve published a description of what a perfect race walking shoe should be for decades. The Carmen’s check off the boxes. They are flexible under the ball of the foot, not the arch, the sole is thin, but not too thin (it is also zero drop which while not in my previously published description is ideal), and it has a sturdy heel.

Carmen also incorporated a three (or four depending on the model) part system to build vertical flexibility from three different components into the sole. I can’t honestly say I have the biomechanical knowledge to assess if this is ideal. I can say personally, it felt good to me. I can also report that I talked to someone who does have that knowledge and they were impressed with how the shoe was build. Given that I only walked in them for a bit I also can’t speak to how they wear or what they will feel like after a 20km, but all signs point to they are a great choice for your all too difficult shoe selection. Given what Carmen had to put into these shoes to get them to market, if the race walking world supports her, then she’ll be able to support the community with a viable option that won’t go out of style and be discontinued right after you decide you like them.

Please visit her site today at www.reshod.com