When MBT shoes first came out I looked into them. I ultimately decided not to get a pair. Since then I’ve remained one part curious and one part skeptical. I’ve watched all the brands come out, at every price, and I’ve watched more and more people wearing them.
One of the newer brands to reach the U.S. market is Ryn: Walking Science. Ryn is a Korean company that produces shoes that are said to tone your leg muscles as you walk. We covered Ryn earlier this spring when they were introduced to the U.S. market. We were able to get a pair for review, and here are the impressions we got.
Out of the box, Ryn provides a few extras that make you see they’re going to hold up for a while. The shoes come with two pairs of sole inserts, one that uses anti-microbial silver woven into the fabric to keep odors and other things from thriving in your shoes. Ryns also come with a spare set of shoe laces and a plastic eyelet you can use to fasten your shoes instead of tying your laces.
Once on the feet, the shoes are very firm. I wore them for a few long walks. They feel good, but when wearing them and walking at a good clip, I started to get pain in my knee. That’s not entirely so unusual for me, but I just feel like the shoe might not be right for me, individually. When standing for long periods in the shoes I felt my arches start to hurt a little.
I found a tester to take over the review period. She is a regular wearer of these type of “shaping” shoes, and has several pairs from competing brands. Her immediate impression of the shoes is that the arch is placed a little differently than in comparable shoes.
At first, she felt her strides were off, but then she realized that these shoes give you more of a workout than in comparable shoes. Ryn shoes make for more of a stretch. After getting over the initial adjustment, the Ryn X-Run are the most worn pair of shoes among her several pairs.