Review: Brooks PureConnect 2 Running Shoe

These are some seriously green shoes. I mean, lordy, you must be able to see me running from space.

I bought the Brooks PureConnect 2 running shoes a little over a month ago. The reason was two fold. One was because my foot hurt (which you can read about here) and the other is because I had just recently finished reading Born to Run by Chris McDougall and I was feeling all kool-aid-y about minimalist running.

Since buying them, I’ve run 8 times (only 8 because I lost two weeks of running just trying to finish out the holiday craziness), and raced once. So, how do my feet feel?

They feel great, actually.

The first thing you’ll notice is how much lighter these shoes are than your standard pair of running shoes. In the quest to minimize the amount of padding on the heel, the shoe loses a lot of weight that a standard running shoe retains. I don’t have exact weights so please don’t ask. Brooks website should have the dimensions.

Slipping the shoe on requires a thin sock. This is because the shoe is a very snug fit. It’s not so snug that it feels tight or painfully cuts off your circulation. It feels like its a shoe that fits on your foot the same way that a leather driving glove might fit your hand. The other thing you’ll notice about the shoe upon slipping into it is how much arch is has. I don’t know if it has more arch than a standard shoe, or if the arch is the same as a standard shoe and only feels accentuated by the lack of heel, but you can help but notice it. I won’t lie, it took some getting used to and I was worried at first that I’d bought a pair of shoes I couldn’t actually wear, but after a couple of runs my feet got used to the arches.

As for how my feet feel, they’re feel good. The issue I was developing in my right foot, which I was terrified was plantar fasciitis, has all but vanished. I still get a little sore, but I’m following the advise of my chiropractor and massaging the bottom of both feet with a golf ball. Between the shoes and the golf ball, they feel solid.

I have noticed that my left foot feels mostly good in the shoe, but there is a slight tug in my heel when I run. If anything, this illustrates not a problem with the shoe, but the fact that my left foot is slightly smaller than my right foot. The left shoe is not quite as snug as the right one.

The final test was the race, after which my feet bothered me exactly not at all. Score.

All in all, I recommend these shoes highly.