Brooks Aurora-BL
A shoe with bizarre looks, but a surprisingly stable feel on the road.
The Brooks Aurora-BL definitely won’t be to everyone’s taste. It was developed by the company’s Blue Line Lab – essentially an experimental R&D department, which works on new materials and manufacturing techniques so they can arrive on your feet sooner.
Before the shoe launched, TechLife spoke to Nikhil Jain, senior manager at Brooks Blue Line, who explained that its look was inspired by space suits, and would definitely be a ‘love it or hate it’ look.
We’re leaning towards the former, for its sheer bold craziness. Its most striking feature is the split sole, made from two thick pieces of DNA Loft foam. This is a new material for Brooks, consisting of EVA foam and rubber, injected with nitrogen rather than air (as the ‘ports’ on the heel inform you). There’s precious little outsole between this foam and the road, so we definitely wouldn’t recommend this shoe for wet conditions, or for piling in serious miles.
Its mesh upper is almost transparent around the toe, meaning your socks are clearly visible. The gusseted tongue is very thin, but the flat laces means they shouldn’t press on the top of your foot unless fastened much too tight. Tight lacing will also cause pressure on the underside of your foot, due to the split in the sole, so take care.
Split soles aren’t a totally new concept, though they’re more commonly seen in dance shows, where freedom of movement is most important and you need to be able to pivot on the spot. Here, the intention is to allow your foot to move more freely. A couple of off-road shoes have employed a similar design before, allowing runners to pick their way through technical routes and sneak between tree roots, but it’s pretty novel for a road shoe.
Despite its pretty outlandish looks, what struck us most about the Brooks Aurora-BL was just how ordinary it felt. You won’t be able to feel the articulation in the sole while you’re moving, and the width of it means the overall feeling is one of stability.
This isn’t a shoe for speed sessions or race day. The foam is decidedly soft and squashy, but without the rigidity of shoes like the super-squishy Asics Novablast Tokyo, there’s none of that shoe’s springiness. That has pros and cons: it doesn’t feel as responsive, but similarly it doesn’t feel unstable at slower speeds.
We have our doubts about the laces’ durability in the long run, as there’s no stitching around the eyelets and they rasp as they’re drawn through the plastic mesh.
Ultimately, the Brooks Aurora-BL is a shoe for being seen in. It looks cool, and that’s really the point. It should also serve to help Brooks refine its manufacturing techniques. We hope to see this specific type of super-light nitrogen-infused foam in future shoes, but perhaps in a more conventional form.
Cat Ellis