"Responsive" is now kind of like "support"; it can mean anything. So if the brochure says "responsive," just cross it out and move on.
There is the occasional little jewel of a phrase in the morass of meaningless verbiage found in most shoe box propaganda. The phrase "differential control" stood out to me a number of years ago on a flier inside a box of what we would today call stability shoes. Okay, so "differential control" is devoid of the sex appeal of "unsurpassed cushioning," but at least it really describes something.
More commonly referred to these days as stability, or in extreme cases, motion control, differential control suggests that a pair of shoes is meant for feet with differential biomechanics. That is, foot motion is out of whack, and depending on the degree of whacklessness, the shoes will keep said foot motion within the bounds of normal whack, whatever that is.
I suspect you won’t see "differential control" showing up anytime soon in place of "motion-control" on inbox brochures, but it would probably be more accurate. As with the various ways to describe cushioning, however, it’s clear that accuracy is not the priority inside the shoe box.
No doubt you have read about "good heel-to-toe transition" in more than one shoe description. While such a transition sounds as if it should be important for everyone, what about runners who land midfoot, or even forefoot? Toe-to-toe is a confrontation, not a transition. And toe-to-heel would be a folk dance. Okay, most (but never all) silliness aside, it makes sense that because of the repetitious nature of the activity, running shoes should transition well from initial impact to final push-off, whatever that pattern may be.
How you accomplish that remains debatable. One shoe company recently claimed that "waisting" the midfoot area of the shoe (cutting out the midsole and outsole under the arch and replacing it with a thick arc of very hard plastic) provided "better heel-to-toe transition." I don’t see how you improve time on the ground when there’s less shoe touching the ground during this transition. Maybe they meant they improved the transition by going straight from heel to toe and skipping the middle part. Floppy arches everywhere will love that.
The list of glowing but vague phrases from inside the shoe box can go on and on. Heck, we haven’t mentioned "smooth stable ride," "optimal support," or "enhancing the foot’s natural gait," all of which sound wonderful but mean very little.
Being able to say a lot without saying anything is quite a skill. No doubt my critics would agree that I know that well. Could be, but when the day comes for me to move on from this page and write about other stuff, whatever it is, it won’t end up inside a box.