You can run, but you can’t hide from the fact that those midsoles on your running shoes will last up to 1,000—1,000!—years in a landfill.
Thankfully, performance running company Brooks debuted the world’s first biodegradable midsole, dubbed the BioMoGo, in 2008. The BioMoGo midsole is now used in six different types of Brooks running shoes, and the company says that all of its performance running shoes will be made with the BioMoGo by the end of this year.
It’s actually pretty fascinating how the BioMoGo works. The soles include a non-toxic, natural additive that increases the rate of biodegradation by encouraging microbes in the soil to break the material down into nutrients that can be used by plants and animals. Because of this, BioMoGos biodegrade in roughly 20 years—about 20 times faster than traditional soles.
By using BioMoGos in its shoes, Brooks estimates that it will save nearly 30 million pounds of landfill waste over a 20-year period. Interestingly, the company decided not to patent this valuable technology, deciding at the outset that the discovery would be treated as an “open source” innovation. This noble move means that other footwear companies are free to use the technology in their own shoes, helping make an even greater impact on the world.
BioMoGo is available in the Brooks Adrenaline™ GTS 9, Glycerin® 7, Cascadia 4, Infiniti 2, Defyance 2, and Trance™ 8 shoes.
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