Best Brooks Running Shoes Right Now

If you’re only going to do one thing, do it well. At least, that’s the model that Brooks seems to follow as it eats, sleeps, and breathes running shoes. On the bright side, that means you should be able to track down a pair of Brooks shoes no matter what you’re looking for. We’re here to help you “run happy” with our guide to the best Brooks Running Shoes you can buy.

The Seattle-based company got its start over 100 years ago making ballet flats and bathing shoes (I know, right?) in Philadelphia. It made the move towards running shoes in 1972, and today, running is all they do. The results speak for themselves. We may not all get to call ourselves Brooks Beasts (their elite running squad), but at least our picks can help you dream of greatness.

We’ve picked our top 12 shoes to get you going on the road or trail, so let’s get into it.

Questions or comments? Leave them below, and we’ll do our best to get back to you.

Recently throwing out some really impressive shoes, Brooks has quietly crept their way back into our good graces. We’re excited to see how this momentum carries further into the year, but for now it’s clear that the Brooks Glycerin 22 is another tally under the win column. Learning from their nitrogen-infused DNA Flash, Brooks stepped it up a notch here with their new DNA Tuned midsole. Featuring pucks in both the heel and forefoot that are injected with nitrogen, the heel receives larger air bubbles to give a softer landing, while the forefoot features smaller bubbles that provide a more responsive toe-off.

For us, it’s really the midsole that’s the star of the show. Beyond that though, it is worth mentioning that the engineered double jacquard mesh upper gives a comfortably snug fit, while the forefoot rubber promises durability for the long haul. With no major complaints beyond looks (I mean, the upper is just u-g-l-y…ugly), the Brooks Glycerin 22 is a solid daily trainer that’ll keep you comfortable for many miles to come.

Sitting a tad high at $165, you may just have to raid your kids’ piggy banks to get your hands on a pair. However, the combination of comfort, performance, and longevity makes it a worthy investment in our eyes. Just make sure to take your time to pick the right colorway.

Read the Brooks Glycerin 22 Review

Brooks offers several flavors of Hyperion these days. We’ll get to a few of them, but we should probably start with the most democratic (and most affordable one), the Hyperion 2. There’s no Max in its name, no Elite, no nothing, and that’s what works best in its favor. This is essentially an updated version of the nitrogen-infused trainer that first gave us some hope that Brooks might be turning a corner.

These days, the Hyperion 2 is about as close to a low-stack daily trainer as you can get, offering less than 30 mm of foam in the heel and dropping to below 20 mm under your toes — almost unheard of. The good news is the DNA Flash v2 foam that you’re running on remains plenty bouncy thanks to the nitrogen that’s pumped inside. Our boys Robbe and Kaleb were pretty much in agreement that the combination of the stack, bounce, and aggressive, serrated laces make this a quick shoe that you can slip on for workouts throughout the week.

If they had any issues with it, it was that the Hyperion 2 isn’t the most stable trainer in the Brooks lineup. Thankfully, though, there’s a GTS version that you can snag for all of your stability needs instead.

Read the Brooks Hyperion 2 Review

We — or at least Robbe — had an issue with the original Hyperion Max… and maybe the Hyperion Max 2. Sure, they were good shoes, but there wasn’t enough Max to ’em. You could go quick and you could go long, but with 36 mm of cushion underfoot, it wasn’t much different from a bouncy daily trainer.

Well, Brooks heard our issues once again, and put a little more Max in the Hyperion Max 3. It gained a full centimeter of foam, taking the total to a definitely Max 46 mm. The latest Hyperion also switches up its structure, putting DNA Gold and Flash v2 above and below its SpeedVault plate with a cutout to save a little weight.

Read the Brooks Hyperion Max 2 review

At this point, three years on, the Ghost Max is a known quantity. In fact, we can’t even make jokes about it being an evolution of the OG Ghost because everyone knows that already. Everyone also knows that it’s about as rock-solid and reliable as a max cushion shoe can be, and it feels like another spot-on example of Brooks actually listening and learning over time.

The funny thing is, that’s exactly how Meg started her review. She wanted to be surprised that she liked the Ghost Max 3, but let’s face it: She liked the previous two, too. And, with as much as Brooks carried over from one year to the next, it would be hard not to like this one as well. It rides on the same reliable base of DNA Loft v3, has the same 6 mm drop, and similar — if possibly more refined — aesthetics. We still remember the first Ghost Max as a shoe that made us turn heads, and this one still has that same goodness.

Some changes in the Ghost Max 3 might not prove as popular, like what seems to be a slightly wider platform, but they’re not major missteps. If you’re after a reasonably priced, well-padded trainer, the Ghost Max 3 is a pretty solid option at just $150.

Read the Brooks Ghost Max 3 review

Tired of Max shoes yet? Yeah, I get it. You have no idea how many times I’ve had to retype the last few names because I’m jumbling the Ghost, Hyperion, and Glycerin of it all. That said, this might be the best Max shoe that Brooks has ever cooked up — if not the company’s best shoe ever. And yes, it bears the name of one of Brooks’ classic daily trainers, but the Glycerin Max is no everyday shoe.

Everything about it simply comes together in just the right way, and we’ve really been loving this one. From the plush bed of DNA Tuned foam to the exaggerated forefoot rocker, the Glycerin Max is tailor-made to keep you moving forward. Like most of the other flavors of DNA foam, Tuned comes with a healthy infusion of nitrogen, and this time, Brooks gave it an illegal stack height of 45 mm in the heel (39 mm in the forefoot for a 6 mm drop), making it the most “Max” of the Max lineup.

As you can imagine, we made sure our cushion queen Meg got her feet in a pair of the Glycerin Max — you know, just to make sure the stack was good enough to be true. She happily confirmed that even though the shoe isn’t exactly light (I mean, there’s a lot of shoe to worry about), the GlideRoll rocker and midsole foam combine beautifully to keep you rolling along. The mostly white colorway she received earned high marks, too, because you know she likes a simple-looking shoe.

Read the Brooks Glycerin Max review

And now, for one of the most reliable shoes to ever do it: the Brooks Ghost 17. Listen, it’s impossible to hate the Ghost — it just is. There’s not enough true good or evil in this spooky specter to swing it to the top or the bottom of the podium, which makes it great. It’s a shoe for running, not a shoe for thinking.

I mean, let’s face it, you absolutely, positively know someone who’s run in the Brooks Ghost since the first time they laced up a running shoe. And, if you’ve ever bought from a run specialty shop, you probably know a collegiate cross country runner who schlepped you a pair while earning beer money for the weekend. It’s a simple, reliable shoe, and it’ll last for a ton of slow, steady miles — and we reviewed it as such.

Well, actually, we reviewed the Ghost 17 pretty well. Maybe we weren’t generous, but we gave the DNA Loft v3 midsole and double jacquard mesh upper the love they deserved without going overboard. Where this shoe does go a little overboard, though, is with its rubber outsole — that thing is freakin’ bulletproof. And sure, maybe it adds an ounce or two to the overall package, but when you’re after a shoe that’ll soak up your morning trot, who cares?

Read the Brooks Ghost 17 review

Up next is one of the more controversial entries on this list, and it’s a race-day option. The Brooks Hyperion Elite 5 is an interesting shoe, for lack of a better word. We haven’t entirely figured out what races we’d trust it for or whether it might be best for rocking through a workout. It’s similar to the Hyperion Elite 4 PB that we liked just a few months ago, yet totally different — make that make sense.

Okay, okay, let me try to make it make sense. For starters, we love the upper. This shoe has one of the lightest, most breathable meshes in the game, and the aggressive red and blue launch colorway looks a lot like a track spike. It’s complete with sawtooth laces, little fins where the lacing eyelets line up, and a big old Brooks wordmark if you forget what you’re running in. So far, oh, so good.

Underfoot, though, Brooks went chaos mode. It ditched the usual central cutouts that most shoes turn to to save weight, instead opting for orb-shaped cutouts that run along the sides, reminding us of the big red balls from Wipeout, just smaller. The result is a much softer ride, yet not one that feels overly plush. Our entire review crew (Thomas, Meg, and Jon) equated the sensation to that of a max-cushion racing flat, which is a contradiction up there with Ravens wide receiver and miniature world major marathon bib.

Read the Brooks Hyperion Elite 5 review

These days, it’s tough to find a budget-friendly running shoe. Models that used to cost $120 have swelled to $140, and everything with a plate tends to start closer to $160. However, there are still a few holdouts that can be had for only a little bit more than a Benjamin. The Brooks Launch 10 is one of those.

Like many of the Brooks daily trainers, the Launch 10 keeps things as simple as can be, perhaps even simpler than the Ghost 16. It’s one of the last daily trainers to use the BioMoGo DNA foam, which we wouldn’t exactly call soft, but it might be right up your alley if you loved the Saucony Kinvara back in the day. Above that thin layer of midsole foam sits a Warp Knit upper that’s, well, just about as simple. It’s not loud or fussy, it just laces up and lets you get on your way — something I’ve probably said before.

In fact, I know I’ve said it before, but the Launch 10 has many of the same traits that we took from the Ghost 16, just with less cushioning all around. That lack of cushion takes a way a little bit of the shoe’s identity, which led one of our reviewers to describe it as an NPC of a shoe — it has a small role to play, but you can usually blaze through the side quest and never think about it again.

Read the Brooks Launch 10 review

I think we can stick with Brooks’ trail offerings for a little longer, especially because it means a chance to talk about the Catamount Agil. If you remember the original Catamount, you’ll remember that it was basically a Hyperion for the dirt, even if it had an all-white upper. Well, the Catamount Agil is an evolution of that shoe, picking up a more aggressive sock-like upper and adding a specially tuned SpeedVault Trail plate underfoot.

This time, we let our resident trail expert, Taylor, take the lead, and he jumped right on the precision of the Catamount Agil. It’s a lightweight, nimble crusher of a shoe that likes to go fast, and he said as much. We’ve had experiences with tight, sock-like uppers in past trail shoes like the Naked T/r, but we can happily say that this one is so much better. It’s tight, sure, but not impossible to get on and off, and there’s actually some forgiveness in the forefoot for once.

Where the Catamount Agil really makes its money, however, is with the DNA Flash v2 midsole. It’s closer to what Brooks uses on its Hyperion lineup, which means it has plenty of bounce underfoot, and it translates beautifully to life on the trails. It’s not the thickest midsole, so you may find yourself limited at longer distances, but if you can keep the shoe feeling fresh, the TrailTack Green outsole will rip and rock through any technical terrain you want to seek out.

Read the Brooks Catamount Agil review

If we’re honest, we weren’t totally sold on the Cascadia 18. It took a heavy trail shoe and made it even heavier, which was enough to make us worry about what the Cascadia 19 might hold. Well, the good news is that Brooks is back in the right direction — mostly. It’s still a little too plush in the upper, which is great for comfort but bad for weight and water retention, and the Cascadia might be losing some of its technical chops along the way.

That said, the Cascadia 19 isn’t really billed as a highly technical option — it’s more of an all-day adventurer, ready to tackle ultra distances and then wake up for a hike the next day. Don’t get us wrong, it’s definitely still a trail-ready runner, with a Trailtack Green outsole and a thick bed of DNA Loft v3 to keep your groundfeel to a minimum, but that’s not always a recipe for success on twisty, rocky, East Coast trails.

But hey, if you can get past the too-bright styling, this might be the Brooks trail shoe that ticks off the most everyday boxes.

Read the Brooks Cascadia 19 review