The smaller the angle and the longer the time to reach that angle, the higher the shoe's stability. Two men's and two women's shoes earned an excellent score. Up, down To grade flexibility, lab technicians clamped the front of each shoe, then had a machine raise and lower the heel 2,100 times, as shown in this photo from a videotape. Scores varied, but all the shoes proved flexible enough to let your forefoot bend as it should. As the Ratings show, it's entirely possible for a running shoe to score high in both stability and flexibility.
High flexibility is good in any running shoe.
You can get a rough sense of a new shoe's flexibility by bending it with your hands, though a shoe fresh out of the box isn't always as flexible as one that's been worn awhile. Support , a judgment made by our panelists, is how well the shoe cradles your foot. All the shoes except the women's New Balance W586WB provided adequate support. Weight matters most on long runs, of course. Denser foam and plastic supports generally make motion-control shoes a bit heavier than cushioning models.