RUNNING IN

COLOR

Analyzing the difference in men's and women's running shoe colors.

If you had to guess, would you say that men and women have similar or different choices when it comes to running shoe colors? Do you think running shoe colors conform to typical gender stereotypes, with more blue shoes for men and more pink shoes for women? We asked ourselves these questions based on comparing our personal experiences and came up with a theory that there was a difference in both color availability and shade.
To prove our theory, with data, we analyzed the running shoes available on RunRepeat, a website that aggregates running shoes from 213 retailers and writes in-depth reviews. For all shoes available in the United States, we collected the gender the shoe was marketed for, the color category, the brand, and the model name.
To better understand the running shoe market, let's start by looking at the color and gender classifications of the 8,884 available running shoes.

Men's vs. Women's Shoes by Color

Percent of Total

Total Count

pink
purple
beige
silver
white
blue
grey
orange
black
green
brown
red
yellow
gold
100% MoreMen
67%
33%
0%
0%
33%
67%
100% MoreWomen
After we found out there was a clear contrast between men and women's color choices, we wanted to know how the shades and lightness differed between genders. For example, blue, a stereotypical color for men, was pretty popular for women too. However, did this mean that both men and women had navy blue, royal blue, and light blue to choose from?
To answer this question, we looked at all non-neutral colors and identified the most dominant color of each shoe. Then, to allow for easy comparison between genders, we used each shoe's hue, saturation, and lightness to cluster the data into similar groups.
Now, let's explore the spectrum of colors available through three different lenses: the cluster colors, the actual shoe colors, and lightness. Each available shoe is represented below as one circle.
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Blue
Color Shoes By

Cluster

Actual

Lightness

Total Shoes

Cluster

Actual

Lightness

Top Brands

0% Women

100% Women

Men's Shoes

Women's Shoes

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Women's Shoes
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Women's Shoes
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Women's Shoes
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Women's Shoes
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Women's Shoes