Brooks Lauch offcially discontinued@#!!@$##@$%

Brooks Launch officially ... I swear I haven't been drinking today.

Considering that they are on the Ravenna 4, I wouldn't expect the original Launch to keep going just as long without a change.

I heard rumors of such a plan months ago all the while trying to convince myself that it all lies. I'm on my 4th pair right now. Hopefully I can stock up when they go on clearance.

Horrible day for Brooks. Why, oh why do they hate me.

Classic.

NO! that is my staple tempo/long race shoe! i didn't like the 2011 version but the 2009-2010 version is awesome.

hopefully, i can get bunches of them on clearance.

Please supply a source for this information. Last week folks at Brooks denied that this was the case.

Green Silence, my favourite of all time is going too.

Damn. I'm on my 12th pair of Launches. I've been wearing them since July 2009, and while I've tried other shoes since then, I always come back to the Launch.

Would it kill Brooks to keep it unchanged (okay, maybe a color update once a year or so) and in their lineup? The tooling/design are long paid for, and there's no need for ad campaigns like those used for Pure shoes.

This is just typical. The Launch is just about perfect (light, cushioned, flexible), and it's brilliance is in its simplicity. I'm sure Brooks' answer to this discontinuation will be "try the Pure shoes" when those are just overcomplicated gimmicks.

Its def discontinued, I "chatted" with their online support and they confirmed. Pureflow is the replacement. Not the same, not the same at all.

I just got the confirmation from Brooks too: the Pure Flow is the "replacement" for the Launch.

The Flow is garbage. It's light, but it's flimsy as hell. I can get 800+ miles out of the Launch (they're great distance trainers for 500 miles, then they feel "broken in" enough for workouts), and I couldn't even get 300 out of the Flows before they were useless.

I know I shouldn't get too worked up over a shoe, but I just can't get over how the Launch is the perfect running shoe. It's everything you need, nothing you don't. So many different runners can wear it for training, speedwork, racing, whatever. And more runners wear traditional trainers than minimalist shoes, no matter what the marketers would have you believe.

Since the future orders have already been placed, I don't mind stocking up (the retailers have already sent their money to Brooks), but we'll see if I ever support Brooks again.

(Unless of course they come out with an identical Launch 2 after enough of us complain.)

Brooks screwed the pooch on the Pure Flow (for me anyway) - it sucks to run in. Nice shoe to walk around in after a long run/race but that's all I like about it.

Every time shoe companies get it right, they screw it up after a year or two thinking they have to change it up. Brooks has actually been better than most though with only incremental changes to the T4-5-6 line, but they do have a habit of going backward at times and making things worse (T5 and Ghost 3).

Of the few people I have run into that have tried the Flow only one really liked them.

The worst thing about the Launch was the crappy colors they kept putting them out with. Only the black ones look good to me.

Could this be the end of the Brooks run at the top? The new Glycerin looks like a clunky Sketcher, the Pure Project is more fashion and Rock N Roll Marathon consumer focused than serious runner function.

Perhaps adidas will get their running house in order and move up the list.

glycerinrunner wrote:

the Pure Project is more fashion and Rock N Roll Marathon consumer focused than serious runner function.

I actually like the Brooks Pure (Flow). I don't care for the cadence - what a ripoff to charge an extra 30$ for support, the connect is a bit too unstable for me and haven't tried the trail shoe (forgot the name). But the Pure is pretty awesome.

Just because you are used to a high offset like the launch has (8mm) doesn't mean everything else is a gimmick for hobbyjoggers.

The launch and the silence were two of the slowest moving shoes for Brooks. It does suck as they are my favorite shoes but the numbers don't lie and the numbers were pretty feeble to invest the money to continue them any further.

Run specialty is a funny market. It is dominated by middle aged hobby joggers. It sucks for us but those are the facts. Fast guys don't shop in run specialty they either get free gear through sponsorship or they buy online to save money, none of which helps shoe companies. Brooks is one of the best companies in the industry because they don't try to be elitist. In doing that they capture the majority of the market and those hobby joggers aren't scared away by a hard core no pain no gain marketing campaign.

Brooks is a very smart company but we sometimes have to take of our elite fast guy hats and just look at the business to see it!!!!!!

Aside from color updates, they haven't changed the Launch in three and a half years. The investment has been made, and the shoe has more than paid for itself. I'd love to know from an insider how much keeping an amortized design inline really costs a company.

The Launch does put Brooks in a funny spot. It's a much better shoe than the Ghost or Defyance for the simple reason that it doesn't have any of the fancy extras Brooks likes to throw in (DRB, DNA, forefoot cushioning, etc.). But if you're a marketer at Brooks, you need to tout the extras in order to seem cutting edge and ahead of the competition.

Even their Pure line features too many buzzwords: DNA, Navband, Ideal Heel. The Launch, with laces, a mesh upper, an EVA midsole, and a small heel cushion unit (which they could probably get rid of), is almost the anti-running shoe.