Brooks Trance 8 trainers with biodegrading midsole

Running shoe manufacturer Brooks is using a new "BioMoGo" foam midsole that when subjected to three specific triggers — low oxygen, certain microbes, and moisture — will biodegrade. That's exactly the environment to be found deep in the mounds of a modern landfill (and not your closet), where the biodegradable midsole will reduce waste bulk over the course of its twenty-year decomposition cycle.

The first shoes to have the BioMoGo midsole will be the $140 Trance 8 running shoes, but Brooks will be transitioning the material to all their products in the near future. Laudably, they've not patented the materials mix of BioMoGo, making it freely available to other shoe manufacturers to use in their own products.

Catalog Page [FootLocker.com via Uncrate]

[#1 posted by Girl With A One Track Mind , July 22, 2008 12:34 PM]

I'm not a Brooks fan (more of an Asics girl) but all credit due to them for this, and for the lack of a patent too: very admirable.