The thing I love the most about my Brooks Green Silence is that they don't look anything like the greener shoe they are. There's absolutely nothing that visually cues to you that the Green Silence are some of the greenest on the market —  they're unapologetically popping bright with inverted yellow and red dominating throughout.

 

The Green Silence is a high-end running shoe from Brooks that I've been running around on for the better part of a month now. My fellow MNN blogger Siel tried them out ahead of me and her mention of them on Facebook prompted me to track down a pair for myself.

 

I'm so glad I did. These are great shoes, whether you run or not.

 

The Green Silence are extremely light, in part thanks to the minimal materials used in the shoe. Brooks claim it uses half as many parts as a regular shoe. This limitation produces the cool visual effect of having the shoe's upper swooping in from the side while the side-oriented lacing make for a snug fit (though the greener shoe laces are slippery and require a good triple knotting during a run).

 

About 75 percent of the shoe is made from post-consumer recycled materials — half of the heel is made from recycled CDs and 30 percent of the outsole is from recycled rubber. Whatever is not made from recycled materials is biodegradable.

 

The Green Silence is a greener shoe, but is still far from truly green. The fact that they are made from recycled CDs is another great greener feature, but also falls short of actually being green. It's greener to delay an old CD going to the landfill with a trip spent as a running shoe, it's green to design a shoe that doesn't create any landfill waste at all at the end of its lifecycle. It's encouraging that companies like Brooks and New Balance are working to make their shoes greener, I just hope they also have someone working on figuring out how to make a truly green shoe.

 

Buy getting back to the Green Silence …

 

Besides good looks and light weight, the shoes are also great runners. I'm a 10-15 mile-a-week kind of guy and have put a lot of steps down on my Green Silence, they've easily slipped into the top spot of my favorite running shoes. They hold my feet well and feel snappy and responsive.

 

The Green Silence went on sale yesterday, you can pick up a pair over at Brooke for just $100.