Running shoes can go the distance but the truth is that most shoes are deemed “dead” before they’re exactly falling apart. This is because it is a good idea to replace shoes long before they reach that state. The problem is that the synthetic materials used to make many shoes can last a long time. Now that’s good when you’re using them, but bad once they’re past the “use by” date.
Currently, there aren’t exactly recycle bins for old running shoes. So instead when the shoes are done, they end up in landfills. The way many of these are built they could be dug by some future garbage-archeologist. One solution is from Brooks Sports with its $100 “Green Silence” shoes, which are designed to break down in a landfill. The process is still more of a distance race than a sprint, and takes 20 years, but that’s a far cry from the marathon pace of many traditional running shoes.
The company also announced a partnership with W.L. Gore & Associates, inventor of high performance fabric technology. The two companies will introduction a new running shoe engineered with GORE-TEX Brand for fall of 2011. The shoes will include the patent-pending Brooks DNA, a smart cushioning system that instantaneously adapts with each step to a runner’s unique biomechanics, pace, gait and surface.
More importantly the shoes will feature BioMoGo, the world’s first biodegrable running shoe midsole, which can biodegrade 50 times faster than conventional athletic shoe midsoles in an active, enclosed landfill. The debut shoes will include the Brooks Adrenaline ASR GTX and the Ghost GTX for both men’s and women’s sizing on August 1, 2011 (MSRP: $120). The race for a greener shoe it seems is on.