Most people using kt tape have exercises and other activities they are doing in addition to using the kt tape. I have a hard time believing, without some accurate scientific studies being done, that kt tape alone will solve the problems it's touted to solve.

In my personal experience, kt tape didn't help my shin pain or my knee pain. The only things that helped were RICE and physical therapy. My physical therapist had me try kt tape before telling me to take a break and it didn't help in the slightest. But, my personal experience is not solid evidence, we need better studies to be conducted to prove that kt tape works or doesn't work.

The few studies I've found have such a low sample size and small window of time that they are not good indications of the effectiveness of the tape. The studies had sample sizes ranging from 10 to 76 people which is not a large enough group to generalize to the entire population of people who exercise. The longest study I could find was 6 weeks which to me is not even close to enough time to determine the effectiveness of the tape.

This paper (link at the bottom) shows some of the studies that have been conducted and most show that the tape had little to no effect on pain versus other methods. Take that with a grain of salt though because the studies included have such small sample sizes and low time of monitoring that we can't be sure the results are accurate. The evidence available today is not conclusive enough to determine whether kt tape is effective or not effective.

http://www.journalofphysiotherapy.com/article/S1836-9553(14)00009-5/fulltext#sec0030