I’m currently on a break from running because I doubled my mileage and as a result, one of my knees wasn’t happy with me. So I’m resting, icing and doing all kinds of stretches and exercises that y’all recommended to get back in tip top shape.
However, I miss running 🙂 . So today I thought it might be fun to talk about one of the things that have made my running a lot more enjoyable this last year.
It’s called Trainer Armour and it’s changed my running game. I knew this post would take a while to write since I wanted to try their products for at least a few months, so I sent out an Insta post in the meantime in December 2023:
In essence, before I replaced my old shoes, the toe holes I was getting were becoming annoying, so I looked for a solution and found a suggestion on Reddit. I then bought Trainer Armour Toe Hole Preventers and they were absolutely amazing at stopping my toe holes from growing.
I also bought them when I got my new pair of shoes this summer and I had to write an entire post gushing about them because I love these little guys so much. After 5 months of running in my new shoes with the toe protectors, I’ve seen not even a hint of toe holes forming.
By this time with my original shoes, those holes were huge and annoying. So I’m going to call these a smashing success because of how effective they are, how easy they are to install, how unobtrusive they are (I literally never remember they’re in my shoe) and the cost: £7.50/$9.82 USD a pair. Phenomenal!
Trainer Armour also makes Heel Hole Preventers if that’s more your speed. They also sell just left feet or just right feet toe hole preventers directly on their website.
Application
One aspect I was most curious about with these toe hole preventers was how they would be applied. I imagined the process would be delicate and annoying – but of course it wasn’t 🙂 . Here’s a video showing the process:
Old Shoes
When applying these to my old shoes with visible toe holes, I started by cutting the cardboard inserter. I saw that my shoe size is between A and B so I cut on the “A” line with the plan to cut more if necessary, but “A” turned out to be the perfect size for my shoe after I slipped it into a shoe to check.
I then peeled off the top of the preventer so the sticky bottom was revealed, and slid the whole thing into the bottom of my shoe.
I found that pushing the top of my shoe down onto the preventer didn’t work perfectly (maybe because the top of my shoes are basically thin mesh). So I lifted the whole cardboard to the top of the shoe and smoothed it that way and it worked! I then helped it detach carefully (which I also think is because of my specific type of shoe that has a super thin top half for breathability). I took the cardboard portion out and I was ready to go!
As you can see in the Insta post above, my original shoes were white and the patch is black so I was curious if it would look strange together, but nope! (I later realized that Trainer Armour has these patches in white or black – oops 🙂 ).
I was also impressed with how well it stitched my toe holes back together and that it never budged for the rest of the life of my shoe. My first run with the preventers was also wild because I literally couldn’t feel them and immediately forgot they were there. And I’m not saying that these unnoticeable contraptions are why, but I ended up running my fastest 2 miles that day.
New Shoes
Applying these preventers to new shoes was even easier since I wasn’t stitching anything together. I slipped the patches in with no problem and then went about my usual running schedule to see if and when toe holes would pop up…but they never did 🙂 .
By this point, my last pair were almost having my whole toe pop out of my shoe, but these continue to look brand new.
Conclusion
These inexpensive little patches have been a complete game changer for my running. When I was concerned about them appearing last year, I popped into a running store and was told by an employee that there was nothing I could do besides buying new $150+ shoes – even though I hadn’t even reached the recommended mileage for my shoes (400 miles). But it turns out, that wasn’t true. There was an easy-to-use $10 solution out there. I’m so happy I did my research 🙂 .
What’s your favorite sport hack?
Very cool purple! One of these days I’ll get into running instead of blaming my flat feet lol. Thanks for posting !
Lol I have flat feet too. So no excuses 😉 . Thank you for reading!
wow! I would’ve had no idea you had fleet based on the amount you run. That’s inspiring and now I have one less excuse 🙂
Lol – I haven’t heard them called “fleet” before. That’s cool.
After I saw your Insta post, I bought some off-brand toe protectors as well and its working great!
My shoes always get a hole on the baby toe side, way before the rest of the shoe is worn out.
I like to rotate shoes, so my newest ones are for running, and after a few hundred miles they get reassigned to everyday wear, then eventually downgraded to being worn while doing messy DIY tasks before finally being thrown out.
Cool! I’m glad they’re working well and it’s good to know there are other brands out there. Super smart shoe rotation you’ve got there!
I’ve used Gear Aid tape to repair a hole in my gloves, with excellent results. But when I tried using it to fix a hole in a pair of trail running shoes, it didn’t work at all. I should give this a try the next time my shoes wear out.
That’s awesome! I didn’t know there was tape that could repair gloves. Good luck with your running shoes!
I’m not a runner but have the same issue. Will give these a try!
Cool! Feel free to let me know what you think 🙂 .