I surprised to find out that 25% of all running shoes being sold in the US are minimalist ie low heal with minimum protection. This trend has been building over the last 5 years. The first I heard about this was when I heard that a leading show manufacturer vistied a distancing running powerhouse university in the state. They noticed the top runners were not wearing the top of the range shoes. When they queried it with the coach he said tha he noticed that his top guys got less injured when they wore lower value lower protection/cushioned shoes.