It’s become common at specialty running stores to video customers running on a treadmill as a means of helping them choose the right shoe. Don’t place too much stock in these analyses.
For starters, most people run slightly differently on treadmills. Second, what they’re mostly looking for in these analyses is your degree of pronation, or how much your foot rolls in between initial contact with the ground and toeing off. Concentrating on that one aspect of the running gait as the key to determining optimal shoe choice is an outdated approach. Finally, and I don’t mean to be harsh here, but come on: The person doing the analysis could be a twenty-year-old making $10 an hour. He might have the best intentions in the world, but should hardly be taken as your shoe guru.
If you’re going to do the treadmill gait analysis, use it as one small bit of information contributing toward your shoe decision. If the salesperson insists on shoehorning you into a model that’s significantly different than what you’ve had success with on the basis of the treadmill analysis, run away.