How we track prices
A price is only useful if it is real, current, and available in your size. Here is how we try to make sure ours are.
Where prices come from
We collect prices from major running retailers through a mix of product feeds and direct retrieval from retailer product pages. Each observation records the retailer, the price, the colourway, and the specific size it applies to.
Why size matters
Running shoe discounts are usually size-dependent. The headline "40% off" is often only true for a men's 7.5 and a women's 11. That is why BetterShoes asks for your size: once you set it, deal pages and shoe pages show prices for offers that actually exist in your size, rather than a best-case number you cannot buy.
Your size is stored in your browser and used only to filter what we show you. It is not part of any indexed page or public URL.
What "90-day low" means
We keep a history of observed prices. A 90-day low is the lowest price we recorded for that shoe within the last 90 days, at any retailer we track, in the size context being shown. It is not a manufacturer's list price and it is not a "was" price supplied by a retailer — it is a price we saw.
If we have not been tracking a shoe for 90 days, we say so rather than implying a longer history than we have.
How deal scores work
A raw percentage discount rewards bad shoes that nobody wants. Our deal score weighs how far below its usual price a shoe is against how well runners actually rate it, so a modest discount on a well-rated shoe can outrank a steep discount on a poor one.
Prices go stale
Retailer prices change constantly and stock disappears without warning. We refresh frequently and show when a shoe's pricing was last updated, but the retailer's own page is always the authority. If a price on BetterShoes does not match what you find, the retailer is right and we are out of date — and we would like to know at [email protected].
Affiliate links
Some outbound retailer links earn us a commission. Which retailer we link to is decided by price and availability, not by commission rate, and no part of the pricing pipeline feeds into ratings. See the affiliate disclosure.