Cool idea on how to test trail runners while in the store.

Makes sense to me. I'll probably do just that, next purchase.

If you cant take the shoe to the trail, bring the trail to the shoe!

At REIs and MECs I've seen small inclined ramps with simulated terrain on them in the shoe section. Not sure if this is a thing at all locations.

Don't recollect seeing it at my REI. No MEC close to here unfortunately. Maybe i should move to Canada to be closer to MEC? Alas, my love does not like the cold.

My closest REI store has the inclined ramp for shoe testing.

–B.G.–

Your feet will toughen up with repeated impacts ;)

But yes, that is a really good idea. I usually try slamming my foot down on sharp rocks as a way to estimate how much abuse they will allow me to take. My minimalist shoes always get more minimal over time and I save the older pairs for dirt and use the new pairs for rocky stuff.

When I worked in a backpacking store (not REI) we had a carpeted, inclined ramp to confirm that people had enough toe room in their shoes for use on the trail. In a pinch you can swing your foot forward and stop it abruptly on the carpet to see if your toes hit the front of the shoe, but really, you should get on an inclined slope and try hard to wiggle as far forward as possible in the shoes. I'd go so far as to say that if a shop does bother to have that basic bit of gear to help you select shoes, they're probably crap at all the other things you expect of them (knowledge, customer feedback, field experience).

Kevin's thoughts about the rock, remind of how we'd promote Thermarest pads when they first came out. We'd inflate one, and put it over pens, pencils, big magic markers, wooden blocks, etc and invite customers to lay down and TRY to feel the stuff underneath. That made a lot of converts. That and rolling up smaller than any ensolite pad and weighing far less than a cot.