How to Find the Best Brooks Shoes for You in 2025, Per Podiatrists

Brooks sneakers appear to pop up all over the place, with signature fashions just like the Ghost on the ft of runners, walkers, grocery customers, nurses, vacationers, and extra. Nevertheless it isn’t simply the model’s enjoyable colorways that make them so well-liked—they’re additionally legit good-for-your-feet sneakers, beloved by podiatrists and pedorthists. “From a health care provider’s perspective, Brooks is type of our go-to shoe,” Nicole Freels, FACPM, an authorized pedorthist at Lexington Podiatry in Kentucky, tells SELF.

The one drawback: How to select from Brooks’s intensive lineup. That will help you make your choose, we requested consultants for his or her faves—plus recommendation on how (and when) to put on them—and logged some miles on a handful of pairs ourselves.

Our high picks

1. Finest Total: Ghost 16
2. Finest for Strolling: Dependancy GTS 15
3. Finest On a regular basis Shoe: Ghost Max SE
4. Finest Each day Coach: Glycerin 22
5. Finest for Overpronation: Adrenaline GTS 24
6. Finest for Plantar Fasciitis: Ariel GTS 24
7. Finest for Lengthy Distances: Glycerin Max
8. Finest for Path Working: Caldera 8
9. Finest for Velocity Exercises: Hyperion Max 2
10. Finest for Highway-to-Path: Divide 5
11. Finest for Racing: Hyperion Elite 4 PB

What to think about when looking for Brooks footwear

Ceaselessly requested questions on Brooks footwear

Store the most effective Brooks footwear

Odds are, there’s a Brooks pair that’s best for you—and your ft. Discover our high picks (and a few procuring recommendation from the professionals) beneath.

Finest Total: Ghost 16

Professionals

• Suits a wide range of foot shapes
• Awarded the APMA seal of acceptance
• Average, comfy cushioning

Cons

• Is probably not sufficient padding for individuals who like an opulent really feel

The Ghost has lengthy been a Brooks bestseller—and for good motive. Whereas nobody shoe is ideal for everybody, this one does have a Sisterhood of the Touring Pants manner of working for a number of foot shapes, John Dewey, PT, ATC, an authorized athletic coach, licensed bodily therapist, and the proprietor of three Fleet Toes specialty operating shops in North Carolina, tells SELF. (The truth that it additionally is available in slender, vast, and further vast widths helps too.)

The Ghost has a just-right heel stack, Bermel says: “It’s sufficient cushioning to supply help and affect absorption, nevertheless it’s not an excessive amount of cushioning the place you’ll be able to’t really feel the bottom.” The result’s a do-it-all shoe that works for every part from simple runs to cross-training to strolling, she provides.

Having logged dozens of miles operating within the Ghost 16 myself, I can attest that it lives as much as its title—I can virtually neglect it’s there, in a great way. Nevertheless it may very well be a draw back for individuals who like an opulent midsole. “Should you’re on the lookout for a bit additional oomph otherwise you need that bouncy feeling, the Ghost might be not the shoe for you,” Bermel says. “It doesn’t have all the additional bells and whistles, nevertheless it’s practical, it will get the job executed, and it’s comfy.”

Finest for Strolling: Dependancy GTS 15

Professionals

• Secure
• Sturdy
• Awarded APMA seal of acceptance

Cons

• Zero heel-to-toe drop could not work for everybody

The Dependancy GTS 15 has every part that Dr. Thomas appears to be like for in a strolling shoe: stable stability and nice sturdiness. He usually prescribes the Dependancy for sufferers on the lookout for ache reduction, due to the shoe’s GuideRail know-how (a.ok.a. GTS) that’s designed to stop overpronation or oversupination. In different phrases, it retains your ft aligned accurately so your ankles can’t roll inwards or outwards as you stroll. We additionally like that the shoe’s extra-roomy toe field is designed to accommodate orthotics or insoles, in the event you want some extra help.

Finest On a regular basis Shoe: Ghost Max SE

Professionals

• Much like the Ghost 16, however with extra cushioning and a decrease heel-to-toe drop
• Nice shock absorption
• Fashionable suede higher

Cons

• Excessive stack could also be too unstable for some
• Solely is available in one width

When Dr. Freels has an extended work day, the Ghost Max “is the one shoe I’ll put on,” she says. “I actually am an enormous fan—I don’t hesitate recommending it to anyone, actually.” She says the shoe’s excessive stack of cushioning is nice for shock absorption, particularly for individuals who stand on arduous surfaces all day, like well being care professionals. It’s additionally her go-to for treadmill operating.

Bermel provides that she loves how cool the suede higher appears to be like—she’s additionally a fan of the glossy leather-based model, which is a superb candidate for on a regular basis put on.

Finest Each day Coach: Glycerin 22

Professionals

• Plush but responsive cushioning
• Nice vitality return
• Clean, comfy trip

Cons

Within the not-so-distant previous, runners on the lookout for one do-it-all coach had to decide on between a softer, extra cushioned shoe (simple on the physique, however generally clunky and gradual) and a handy guide a rough, extra responsive one that may choose up the tempo (at the price of feeling too skinny underfoot). However the brand new Glycerin 22 has the most effective of each: a nitrogen-infused midsole with squishier padding within the heel, the place most runners land, and a firmer forefoot for simpler push-offs.

Once I examined the Glycerin 22s almost each day, I wore them throughout simple runs and exercises on the street and the treadmill. My pair held up: Though the footwear don’t really feel as space-age as they sound, I discovered that whether or not I used to be going slowly or selecting up the tempo, they struck the best stability of sentimental and springy. (You may learn my full assessment right here.)

Dr. Freels can be impressed by the pair’s tech and says that the sneaker’s combo of cushiness and vitality return “goes to place your physique in a greater place long-term in the course of the gait cycle.”

Finest for Overpronation: Adrenaline GTS 24

Professionals

• Guardrails present stability for mild-to-moderate overpronation
• Breathable mesh higher
• Average, comfortable cushioning

Cons

• Is probably not sufficient padding for operating longer distances
• Some Brooks reviewers say it runs small

The Adrenaline is Brooks’s signature stability, or GTS, shoe, and one of the well-liked choices for overpronators. It’s made with the model’s GuideRail know-how, a.ok.a. plastic reinforcements, on either side of the shoe that you can imagine like bumpers at a bowling alley, says Bermel. “They aren’t meant to alter the best way that you simply transfer,” she says. “It’s extra to supply help to runners who overpronate, in order that their footwear don’t put on out inconsistently, as a result of that may trigger points down the street.”

Lee Firestone, DPM, a podiatrist at Foot & Ankle Specialists of the Mid-Atlantic and an avid runner, can personally vouch for the Adrenalines. “I’m a pronator,” he tells SELF. “I believe they’re well-made footwear, and the GuideRails actually do assist with stability for individuals who have pronation, like me.”

Finest for Plantar Fasciitis: Ariel GTS 24

Professionals

• Extraordinarily steady
• Additionally nice for correcting overpronation
• Awarded the APMA seal of acceptance

Cons

When a affected person has plantar fasciitis, the chances are good that Dr. Thomas will suggest the Ariel GTS 24. “Overwhelmingly, the Ariel is among the commonest footwear I prescribe for plantar fasciitis,” he says. “It’s simply so darn steady within the rear foot.”

That stability is vital for these with plantar fasciitis, he explains, as a result of any motion out of your foot wiggling round in your shoe throughout your gait cycle can irritate your plantar fascia much more. “One thing just like the Ariel that has the 2 items of plastic on both aspect and a wider base goes to cease that toggling backwards and forwards,” Dr. Thomas says.

Finest for Lengthy Distances: Glycerin Max

Professionals

• Plenty of comfortable, bouncy cushioning
• Softer foam within the heel and extra responsive foam within the forefoot
• Rocker form for clean transitions

Cons

• Max cushioning might be an excessive amount of for some runners
• Heavy

“I do know for me, and for lots of runners, they wish to have some additional cushioning underfoot once they’re going to be on their ft for a very long time,” Bermel says. The Glycerin Max has all that cushioning after which some—a complete 45 millimeters, to be precise.

When SELF’s director of meals and health, Christa Sgobba, CPT, examined a pair, she discovered that they helped save her legs from the pounding of lengthy marathon coaching runs. “On these days, I’ve been notably grateful to achieve for the Glycerin Max—they actually present that additional dose of TLC that can assist you get by means of that day’s plan,” she wrote in her assessment.

Bermel agrees: “I prefer it for lengthy runs as a result of it’s received cushion and bounce, nevertheless it’s not too comfortable, so I really feel like I can nonetheless run at a good tempo,” she says. That stated, she acknowledges that the quantity of cushioning can really feel clunky. “It’s not a shoe the place you would have a way of floor suggestions, which some runners actually like,” she says.

Finest for Path Working: Caldera 8

Professionals

• Vast base for stability
• Fast-drying higher
• Sturdy, grippy outsole

Cons

• Some runners might want much less cushioning on uneven trails
• Solely accessible in a single width

What works on the roads doesn’t all the time work on the paths. A stable path shoe ought to have deep lugs on the outsole (like treads on a tire) for grip, a wider base for additional stability on ever-changing terrain, and a protecting higher that received’t snag on roots and rocks. The Caldera 8’s received all of it—and it’s supercomfortable, Dr. Thomas says.

“On a path, quite a lot of instances your gait isn’t uniform since you’re avoiding issues like ruts,” he says. “Having a wider midfoot and a wider heel is a recreation changer as a result of it may well introduce much more stability—that’s why I just like the Caldera.”