Nu shooz: Brooks Defyance 3

Today is my Save California from Bankruptcy Day Off, so I decided to run a few personal errands, one of which was to get new running shoes.

Feet, meet the Brooks Defyance 3. I can’t wait ([wink]) to run with them.

I had another great shopping experience at A Snails Pace. I’ll refrain from going into the play-by-play because (1) it’s boring to read and (2) there’s really not much to tell. I told the sales guy I wanted to get the same shoe I bought last time, he consulted the store’s computer, and got a pair for me to try on. I was in and out in less than 10 minutes.

Basically I bought the same shoes, but not technically. My previous running shoes were Defyance 2’s, and my new pair is, as the sales guy said, “The new model.” What’s the difference, besides a higher number and different colors (better, in my opinion)? I asked.

“They’re always changing things around,” the sales guy said.

How much of this “changing things around” is for product improvement or perceived improvement to sell more shoes is another question. What amazed me is that a supposedly different and better version of the shoe I bought in July had been release. That rate of obsolescene is nowhere near what it was for computers back in the day (if you bought a computer in the mid- or late-‘90s, it was obsolete when you walked out the store), but it’s pretty staggering. I’d always known the athletic shoe industry was huge, but damn! Brooks and the other prominent running shoe manufacturers are designing, engineering, and making new running shoes faster than us runners can wear them out. (This is obviously not a unique revelation, but I don’t buy shoes very often. Plus, this is the first time I’ve bought running shoes from the same company.)

Another change from my previous Brooks purchase was the company’s new commitment to the environment. I think they may have been moving in that direction in July, but now their packaging proudly proclaims the measures Brooks has taken to become as green as possible. Check it out:


While I appreciate what Brooks has done for the Earth (how much of that is actually heartfelt environmentalism or a shift appealing to popular sentiment is another question), I think they should do more to improve their labor practices.


I don’t know how much they pay their factory workers in China, but I’m sure it’s not as much as they’d need to pay Americans or Western Europeans. Yes, I feel bad about supporting a company that makes it’s shoes in Asia, possibly exploiting its workers however it can, but I’ve realized it’s basically impossible to find running shoes made anywhere or anyway else. That’s a sad reality of our world.