Running shoes care for our foot health. Good designs are in need. We can order custom shoes designs from big brands, but it costs so much money. So we can make it ourselves. Printing our name on the shoes, that sounds unbelievable. Yes I have a shoes printer which is purchased on the internet. But what is it that makes the Beast the long-selling franchise it is? Let’s see how the shoe is built.
Fashion shoes designs are involved in Beast. That is a big advantage. Let’s start with the midsole and its composition. The material Brooks has recently been using for their midsoles is called MoGo, it is a foam compound that replaces their previous Substance 257. According to independent third-party laboratories, MoGo provides a 40% improvement in cushioning and a 22% improvement in returned energy. What’s the difference between cushioning and energy return? Cushioning is the ability of the midsole to absorb the shock of your landing. Landing on a grass field as opposed to landing on concrete, the grass will have more cushioning than the concrete. Energy return instead refers to the capacity of the material you land on to compress (to absorb the shock) and to expand back in a short amount of time. If the foam material compresses and doesn’t go back in shape soon enough, it will not only absorb the shock, but also waste the energy you are putting in each step.
This said, not many independent studies are available to compare the properties of the different foam compounds used by different companies, but these number are a good indicator if you are a previous user of the Beast: this new one will absorb more shock and waste less of your energy while doing so.
The rest of the cushioning is taken care of by Hydroflow, inserts of viscous fluids in the heel and forefoot in order to further absorb the shock of the landing in the areas of max impact. They are comparable the Asics Gels and Nike Airs.
Let’s now have a look at what the Brooks Beast is famous for: its stability elements. Brooks goes the way of a dual density midsole post, in the name of PDRB (Progressive Dynamic Roll-Bar), biomechanically engineered to allow for progressive pronation
control. What it actually is, is an injection of a dual density foam (one medium and one hard density one) in the medial (internal) area of the foot, from the heel to the arch. Having a harder compound right where your foot naturally tends to collapse, helps you prevent overpronation.
Also in the arch area there is Brooks DRB Accel, a plastick shank that wraps the midsole beneath the arch and extends into the midsole towards the heel. The purpose of this is to prevent an innatural side-to-side torsion of the foot during the heel-to-toe transition, keeping your gait in the line it is supposed to be and helping avoiding sprang ankles. You can see a detail of both in the following picture.
For the rest, the sole unit of the Brooks Beast is wide and flat, with not many flex grooves or deep patterns in the outsole. Some runners say that this causes to shoe not to have the best grip on wet or uneven surfaces.