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The best and most supportive walking shoes of 2024

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woman walking in sneakers

Hoka


One of the best ways to improve your physical and mental health this fall is to walk more. It doesn’t matter if you do it outside, at the gym or on an under-desk treadmill while you work. Getting more steps in can help improve cardiovascular health, relieve chronic back pain, boost your mood and more.

Whether you already have a walking routine you love or you’re just starting to build the habit, it’s important to lace up in a great pair of walking shoes to make your walks comfortable and enjoyable.


The best walking shoes of 2024

The best walking shoes are cushy, breathable and supportive in all the right places. To find the most comfortable fit for you, we’ve rounded up our absolute favorite shoes for walking in 2024.


Best walking shoe overall: Hoka Clifton 9

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Hoka


Hoka is famous for making running shoes with extra thick cushioning that makes it feel like you’re running on clouds. So it’s no surprise they also make some of the most comfortable and supportive walking shoes on the market.

The Hoka Clifton 9 is one of the most balanced  to date, featuring a more neutral footbed and enough cushion to keep you comfortable whether you’re running, walking or standing. The newest model in the Clifton lineup also boasts a lighter weight, more responsive midsole so you can go the distance without feeling like your shoes are weighing you down.

Flex grooves on the outsole and a wider toe box give your foot the flexibility and room to move naturally through your stride. Combine that with the extra cushion and the Clifton 9 is one of the best running shoes to use for walking or as your go-to shoe for traveling or running errands.

The plush yet balanced shoe costs $145 for a pair at Hoka.

Top features of the Hoka Clifton 9:

  • The balance of comfort and responsiveness makes this a great go-to shoe for everyday wear or a new fitness walking regimen.
  • The wider toe box gives room for your toes to spread as you walk.
  • A plush heel minimizes friction on your ankle so you’ll be just as comfortable on longer walks.

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Best walking shoe for speed walking: Adidas Supernova Prima

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Adidas


The Supernova Prima is one of Adidas’ newest and most comfortable running shoes. It has a taller stack of the brand’s ultra-soft Dreamstrike+ foam than any other shoe to date. It also features wide support rods and an ergonomically designed outsole to provide the grip and support you need for a stable landing. 

When you want to walk faster or maybe even alternate between walking and running along your route, this super soft and comfortable running shoe is the one to do it in. The upper is breathable and soft, for a great fit that doesn’t pinch around the midfoot or forefoot. So your feet will feel great in these no matter how fast you’re moving.

The soft yet responsive Adidas shoes are available for $160.

Top features of the Adidas Supernova Prima

  • With wide support rods and an ergonomic outsole, this shoe offers a stable landing with every step.
  • The tall stack of Dreamstrike+ foam is super soft with just enough springiness to give you a boost when you want to go a little faster. 
  • The tongue is thinner and wraps over your foot like a gaiter to keep debris out
  • Padding around the heel creates a snug but comfortable fit so your heel doesn’t slide around in the shoe. 

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Best walking shoes for foot pain: Brooks Ghost 16

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Brooks


The Brooks Ghost 16 is one of the most popular running shoes the brand offers, and for good reason. The Ghost line is one of the most recommended shoes for people with plantar fasciitis. The Brooks Ghost 16 is the latest in this line of comfy running shoes that provide just enough support to ease aching feet without over-correcting your gait. That’s achieved by using a nitrogen-infused EVA foam in the midsole, making for a soft yet airy ride that cushions each impact. A high 12mm heel-toe drop means you get extra cushioning as your heel first strikes the ground on each step. 

Get a pair of the podiatrist-approved shoes for $140.

Top features of the Brooks Ghost 16:

  • The DNA Loft v3 midsole infuses more nitrogen and air into the EVA foam for an even softer feel that weighs less than its predecessor.
  • The midsole is thick for a cushier stride without changing the heel-toe drop.
  • An engineered mesh upper adds a bit more stretch so your foot can move naturally.
  • This edition keeps the segmented crash pad that helps redistribute the shock of each impact away from your heel.

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Most stylish walking shoe: New Balance 550

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New Balance


New Balance is one of the most celeb-loved sneaker brands around. The comfy casual shoe was most recently spotted on the feet of Taylor Swift. The pop music icon wore a red and white pair of New Balance 550 shoes to complete her Kansas City Chiefs outfit as she cheered on Travis Kelce this season.

While Swift’s seal of approval is reason enough to get a pair, the New Balance 550 is a comfortable walking shoe in its own right. Featuring a lightweight yet structured construction, the shoe gently hugs your foot. Meanwhile, a cushy midsole absorbs impact so you can walk all day without straining your feet.

Available in unisex sizes, get the stylish walking shoe in a variety of stylish colorways directly from New Balance for as low as $110.

For Swifties, the exact colorway she wore is perpetually sold out at major retailers but you can try to find a pair in your size on a resale platform. We’ve spotted some red and white New Balance 550s for as low as $100 on StockX.

Top features of the New Balance 550:

  • The durable leather upper gently cradles your foot to provide all-day support.
  • A thick midsole adds comfort for all-day walking and standing.
  • The classic low-top silhouette makes it easy to style so you can enjoy all-day comfort that matches your outfit.
  • Taylor Swift loves them, and we love her.

Best walking shoes under $100: Asics Gel-Contend 9

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Asics


If you’re looking for lasting support and comfort without a triple-digit price tag, Asics is one of our favorite budget-friendly brands. The Asics Gel-Contend 9 rings up at just $70 for a pair, and that gets you a gel-infused foam midsole paired with a soft, supportive mesh upper. Designed for people with a neutral or slight underpronation in their gait, these affordable Asics offer some gentle gait correction without being overly stiff. So you can walk or stand for hours while enjoying gentle arch support and premium shock absorption. 

The budget-friendly shoes include some of Asics’ best stability technology like a Trusstic wrap around the arch and an ortholite sock liner. It pairs those stability features with flex grooves on the outsole and soft yet durable foam in the midsole for soft support that doesn’t restrict your foot’s movement too much.

Top features of the Asics Gel-Contend 9:

  • The gel-infused cushioning is great at absorbing shock for a super soft landing.
  • The upper includes Trusstic technology that wraps around the arch to gently correct your gait. 
  • The flexible outsole and stretchy mesh upper provide enough flexibility to balance out the stability features in this shoe. 
  • At $70 per pair, these are some of the most advanced walking shoes you’ll find at this price point.

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Shop more top-rated walking shoes


When should I buy new walking shoes?

A general rule of thumb is to replace your shoes every 300 to 500 miles. If you walk two miles every day, for example, you’ll need to buy new walking shoes at least once a year.

The more you walk or run in your shoes, the more often you’re crushing the foam underfoot. While that’s exactly what the foam was put there for, it will eventually lose its springiness over time. Once that happens, it’s no longer providing the same support and comfort it did when the sneaker was new.

If you start to notice your shoes don’t feel as cushy as they used to or they start to lose their shape, it’s time for an upgrade.


Can you walk in running shoes?

It’s fine to use running shoes for walking. Some of the most supportive and comfortable shoes on the market are those that were designed specifically for runners. They offer great shock absorption and cushion while still keeping the structure flexible enough to allow your foot to move.

With that said, you shouldn’t wear the same shoes you wear for running on your walks. If you love your Nike Pegasus 41s for running, for example, get a separate pair to use for walking instead of using the same ones. That way, you won’t wear them out too quickly.

Keeping separate shoes for running and walking is also important for preserving their shape and support. Your stride when you run is different than when you walk, including where you land on your heel, where your foot lifts off and how much force is behind each footfall. As you break in a pair of shoes, the foam and upper layer of the shoe will stretch and mold around your foot based on that stride. For the most secure fit, it’s important to only use them for one activity or the other so you’re always applying pressure to the same places in the shoe.


Should you wear the same walking shoes every day?

It’s usually better to rotate between two or three different pairs rather than wearing the same walking shoes every day. The biggest reason for this is hygiene. The sweat and dirt that accumulate in a shoe from a day of walking can create the perfect breeding ground for bacteria and fungi. By switching shoes each day, you give yesterday’s pair a day or two to air out.




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Python squeezes Thai woman in her kitchen for 2 hours before she’s rescued by police

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Bangkok — A 64-year-old woman was preparing to do her evening dishes at her home outside Bangkok when she felt a sharp pain in her thigh and looked down to see a huge python taking hold of her.

“I was about to scoop some water and when I sat down it bit me immediately,” Arom Arunroj told Thailand’s Thairath newspaper. “When I looked I saw the snake wrapping around me.”

The 13-to-16-foot-long python coiled itself around her torso, squeezing her down to the floor of her kitchen.

“I grabbed it by the head, but it wouldn’t release me,” she said. “It only tightened.”

Thailand Snake Attack
A photo provided by Kunyakit Thanawtchaikun shows a python coiled around the torso of Arom Arunro, squeezing her down to the floor of her kitchen in Samut Prakan province, Thailand, Sept. 17, 2024.

Kunyakit Thanawtchaikun/AP


Pythons are non-venomous constrictors, which kill their prey by gradually squeezing the breath out of it.

Propped up against her kitchen door, she cried for help but it wasn’t until a neighbor happened to be walking by about an hour and a half later and heard her screams that authorities were called.

Responding police officer Anusorn Wongmalee told The Associated Press on Thursday that when he arrived the woman was still leaning against her door, looking exhausted and pale, with the snake coiled around her.

Police and animal control officers used a crowbar to hit the snake on the head until it released its grip and slithered away before it could be captured.

In all, Arom spent about two hours on Tuesday night in the clutches of the python before being freed.

She was treated for several bites but appeared to be otherwise unharmed in videos of her talking to Thai media shortly after the incident.

Encounters with snakes are not uncommon in Thailand, and last year 26 people were killed by venomous snake bites, according to government statistics. A total of 12,000 people were treated for venomous bites by snakes and other animals 2023.

The reticulated python is the largest snake found in Thailand and usually ranges in size from 5 to 21 feet, weighing up to about 165 pounds. They have been found as big as 33 feet long and 287 pounds.

Smaller pythons feed on small mammals such as rats, but larger snakes switch to prey such as pigs, deer and even domestic dogs and cats. Attacks on humans are not common, though do happen occasionally.

There have also been fatal attacks in Indonesia, where a woman was found inside the belly of a reticulated python that swallowed her whole in June — the fifth person to be devoured by one of the snakes in the country since 2017.



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After Tyre Nichols’ fatal beating, Memphis officer texted photo of bloodied man to ex-girlfriend, she testifies

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A former Memphis police officer charged in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols sent his ex-girlfriend a photo of the badly injured man on the night he was punched, kicked and hit with a police baton following a traffic stop, according to trial testimony Wednesday.

Brittany Leake, a Memphis officer and Demetrius Haley’s former girlfriend, testified during the criminal trial that she was on the phone with Haley when officers pulled Nichols over for a traffic stop. She said she heard a “commotion,” including verbal orders for someone to give officers his hands.

The call ended, but Haley later texted the photo in a group chat comprising Haley, Leake and her godsister, she testified. Prosecutors displayed the photo for the jury. It showed Nichols with his eyes closed, on the ground with what appeared to be blood near his mouth and his hands behind his back.

Leake said that when she saw the photo, her reaction was: “Oh my God, he definitely needs to go to the Med.”

The Med is shorthand for Memphis’ trauma hospital.

The fatal beating, caught on police bodycams and street surveillance cameras, has sparked protests and calls for police reform. Officers said they pulled over Nichols for reckless driving, but Memphis’ police chief said there was no evidence to substantiate that claim.

Haley, Tadarrius Bean and Justin Smith are on trial after pleading not guilty to charges that they deprived Nichols of his civil rights through excessive force and failure to intervene, and obstructed justice through witness tampering. Their trial began Sept. 9 and is expected to run three to four weeks. 

Tyre Nichols
Former Memphis police officer Demetrius Haley arrives at the federal courthouse for the second day of jury selection for the trial in the Tyre Nichols case Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, in Memphis, Tenn.

George Walker IV / AP


The Memphis Police Department fired the three men, along with Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr., after Nichols’ death. The beating was caught on police video, which was released publicly. The officers were later indicted on the federal charges. Martin and Mills have taken plea deals.

During her testimony Wednesday, Leake said she deleted the photo after she saw it and that sending such a photo is against police policy.

“I wasn’t offended, but it was difficult to look at,” she said.

Leake said Haley had sent her photos before of drugs, and of a person who had been injured in a car accident.

Earlier Wednesday, Martin was on the witness stand for a third day. Defense attorneys tried to show inconsistencies between Martin’s statements to investigators and his court testimony. Martin acknowledged lying about what happened to Memphis Police Department internal investigators, to try to cover up and “justify what I did.”

But Martin said he told the truth to FBI investigators after he pleaded guilty in August, including statements about feeling pressure on his duty belt where his gun was located during the traffic stop, but not being able to see if Nichols was trying to get his gun. Martin has testified that he said “let go of my gun” during the traffic stop.

Martin Zummach, the attorney for Justin Smith, asked Martin if he knew of any reasons why Nichols did not simply say, “I give up.”

“He’s out of it,” Martin said. “Disoriented.”

Martin testified that the situation escalated quickly when Haley pulled his gun and violently yanked Nichols from his car, using expletives and failing to tell Nichols why he had been pulled over and removed from the vehicle.

“He never got a chance to comply,” Martin said.

Nichols, who was Black, was pepper sprayed and hit with a stun gun during the traffic stop, but ran away, police video shows. The five officers, who also are Black, then beat him about a block from his home, as he called out for his mother.

Video shows the officers milling about and talking as Nichols struggled with his injuries. Nichols died Jan. 10, 2023, three days after the beating.

An autopsy report shows Nichols – the father of a boy who is now 7 – died from blows to the head. The report describes brain injuries, and cuts and bruises on his head and elsewhere on his body.

Jesse Guy testified that he was working as a paramedic for the Memphis Fire Department the night of the beating. He arrived at the location after two emergency medical technicians, Robert Long and JaMichael Sandridge.

Guy said he was not told about the medical problems Nichols had experienced before he arrived, and that Nichols was injured, seated on the ground and unresponsive.

Nichols had no pulse and was not breathing, and it “felt like he was lifeless,” Guy said.

In the ambulance, Guy performed CPR and provided mechanical ventilation, and Nichols had a pulse by the time he arrived at the hospital, the paramedic said.

Guy said Long and Sandridge did not say if they had checked Nichols’ pulse and heart rate, and they did not report if they had given him oxygen. When asked by one of Bean’s lawyers whether that information would have been helpful in treating Nichols, Guy said yes.

Long and Sandridge were fired for violating fire department policies after Nichols died. They have not been criminally charged.

The five officers also have been charged with second-degree murder in state court, where they pleaded not guilty. Mills and Martin are expected to change their pleas.

Federal prosecutors have previously recommended a 40-year sentence for Martin. A date has not been set in state court yet.

Nichols worked for FedEx, and he enjoyed skateboarding and photography. The city of Sacramento, where Nichols grew up, named a skatepark in his honor. “Tyre fell in love with skateboarding at a young age and it wasn’t long before it became a part of his lifestyle,” states the resolution approved by the city council. He had a tattoo of his mother’s name.

“Tyre Nichols’ family have been praying for justice and accountability from the very beginning of this tragedy,” Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, the civil rights attorneys representing Nichols’ family, said in a statement when the trial began. 



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Boeing set to start large-scale furloughs due to machinists strike

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Boeing’s CEO said Wednesday that the company will begin furloughing “a large number” of employees to conserve cash during the strike by union machinists that began last week.

Chief Executive Kelly Ortberg said the people who would be required to take time off without pay starting in coming days include executives, managers and other employees based in the U.S.

“While this is a tough decision that impacts everybody, it is in an effort to preserve our long-term future and help us navigate through this very difficult time,” Ortberg said in a company-wide message to staff.

Boeing didn’t say how many people will face rolling furloughs, but the number is expected to run into the tens of thousands. The aerospace giant had 171,000 employees at the start of the year.

About 33,000 Boeing factory workers in the Pacific Northwest began a strike Friday after rejecting a proposal to raise pay by 25% over four years. They want raises of at least 40%, the return of a traditional pension plan and other improvements in the contract offer they voted down.

Boeing's Seattle Workers Walk Out In First Strike Since 2008
Workers picket outside a Boeing in Everett, Washington, on  Sept. 16, 2024. 

Scott Brauer / Bloomberg via Getty Images


The strike is halting production of several airplane models including Boeing’s best-selling plane, the 737 Max. The company gets more than half of the purchase price when new planes are delivered to buyers, so the strike will quickly hurt Boeing’s cash flow.

Ortberg said selected employees will be furloughed for one week every four weeks while retaining their benefits. The CEO and other senior executives will take pay cuts during the duration of the strike, he said, without stating how deep the cuts will be.

All work related to safety, quality, customer support and certification of new planes will continue during the furloughs, he said, including production of 787 Dreamliner jets, which are built by nonunion workers in South Carolina.

Ortberg said in a memo to employees that the company is talking to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers about a new contract agreement that could be ratified.

“However, with production paused across many key programs in the Pacific Northwest, our business faces substantial challenges and it is important that we take difficult steps to preserve cash and ensure that Boeing is able to successfully recover,” he said.

Boeing’s chief financial officer warned employees earlier this week that temporary layoffs were possible.

The company, which is based in Arlington, Virginia, but has most of its commercial-airplanes business located in the Pacific Northwest, is also cutting spending on suppliers, freezing hiring and eliminating most travel.

Despite two full days of talks assisted by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the union said Wednesday that no resolution had been reached and no additional negotiations were scheduled, according to CBS Seattle affiliate KIRO-TV.

Striking workers are picketing at several locations in the Seattle area, Oregon and California. The union, which recommended the offer that members later rejected by a 96% vote, is surveying the workers to learn what they want in a new contract. The union’s last strike at Boeing, in 2008, lasted about two months.

If the walkout doesn’t end soon, Boeing’s credit rating could be downgraded to non-investment or junk status, which would make borrowing more expensive. Shortly after the walkout began Friday, Moody’s put Boeing on review for a possible downgrade, and Fitch said a strike longer than two weeks would make a downgrade more likely.



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