While there aren’t any health consequences with wearing a shirt past its prime there are health consequences to not repairing or replacing your footwear in a timely manner. So in your quest to continually reduce the burden you place on the biosphere by striving to reduce, reuse, repair, reuse, and recycle don’t wear the same shoes for too long without repairing or before replacing them and if you really want to extend the life of your footwear and thus reduce your ecological footprint, literally and metaphorically, consider going barefoot when practically possible.

When wearing footwear I recommend walking/running as if you were doing so barefoot, i.e, landing towards your toes with a larger surface of your foot rather than smashing down on the outside of your heel with every overextended stride. Shoes or no shoes be careful while walking/running on slanted roads as this could cause you to develop a poor gait and put extra stress on your knees. When you do walk/run on sloped roads try to balance it out. For instance, when safe, walk/run with the traffic there and walk/run against the traffic back.

Fossil fuels aren’t cheap and neither is the electricity generated by burning them so why not get a nice umbrella, which is extremely useful in rain or shine, and walk more. This is not only better for personal health but also for public and planetary health. When you do need to cover slightly longer distances consider a bike or a perhaps a skateboard.