Brooks

Brooks built this one to be steady and cheap rather than exciting, and it shows. It is a genuinely good walking and gym shoe with a wide, planted base. Ask more of it than a short, easy run and the thin, firm foam starts to tell.

Brooks has put a modern racing foam into its most familiar shoe, cutting a chunk of weight and adding a sharper push-off. It handles easy runs and faster days in one pair, which the Ghost never really did. The foam is not quite the leap the name implies.

Brooks has finally made its most structured shoe soft, swapping in a modern foam and adding height under the whole foot. It suits heavier runners, walkers and orthotic users who want a broad, steady platform. The weight is the thing that has not been addressed.

Brooks has spent five versions making race shoes that were merely fine. This one is not. A reworked foam and a far more aggressive plate give it a rolling, energetic feel that holds up over a marathon, and the wider midfoot helps when you tire. The price is the sting.

A deeply cushioned, stable trail shoe for people who spend hours on their feet off road and want protection more than speed. The wide base and quick-draining upper are its strengths. Its weight and its very small update are the reasons to hesitate.

Read the Brooks Cascadia 20 review to see how this trail shoe balances comfort, stability, and durability for neutral runners.

The Brooks Ghost 18 comes from a reliable ancestry of shoes with