INTRODUCTION: Recreational running is one of the cheapest sports that provides its benefits, but it also has flaws. One of these disadvantages is the occurrence of injury, which is influenced by external and internal risk factors. One of the external risk factors is sports shoes, which, according to the existing research, can have an impact on the development of the injury. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether recreational runners choose sports shoes according to anatomical characteristics of the feet and to investigate their opinions about the influence of sports shoes on the formation of injuries of the musculoskeletal system. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The research was conducted on 123 recreational runners with assistance of the survey questionnaire on the Trčimo! website. 3sporta.com. Respondents who are involved in the research are runners between the ages of 18 and 60, who constantly run the last six months and run 20-40 km on a weekly basis. The questionnaire contained ten or eleven questions, depending what answers have the runners provided. RESULTS: The obtained results showed that 65.4% of runners with a neutral position feet use neutral sneakers, 23.3% of runners with supinated feet use them tennis shoes with a cushion, and 58.1% of subjects with a pronated position of the foot used sneakers for movement control. In 24.4% of respondents, an injury occurred and they used tennis shoes for movement control(40%). Most of them run on asphalt (78.9%) and uneven terrain (65.9%). They change their running shoes every 6-12 months (36.6%), and 43.1% completely agrees that sports shoes can cause injury to the musculoskeletal system in recreational running. CONCLUSION: The results show that, in general, runners know how to choose sports shoes correctly in regard to the anatomical characteristics of the feet. They also consider that sports shoes have an impact on the development of injuries of the musculoskeletal system. It is evident from the obtained results that the experience and knowledge of internal and external risk factors increases with years of experience in recreational running.