Brooks Levitate 6 – Full Review
A daily trainer for your easy pace runs. But perhaps not recommended for those longer runs…
Lets dive into the details…
Basic Specifications
Stack height in the heel 32,5mm
Stack height in the front 24,5mm
Drop 8mm
Weight 350g in my size 46
True to size with enough room in the toe box for my difficult feet.
The heel is also pretty good locked in and you get a decent amount of padding and stability.
As mentioned, it’s a Neutral daily trainer with a lower stack height as in other brooks shoes. There we usually see a 12mm drop.
Not that you will notice this though.
Midsole / Outsole
It’s Advertised as a super springy shoe which would give you an energise experience.
I do not completely agree with this, there are shoes that give you a way more springy feel than the levitate 6’s in the same price category.
The midsole is DNA amp v2 where they added 2mm additional foam, but the shoe still remains firm for me, it’s not only about adding additional foam, but also the actual feeling of the foam.
I’m not saying firm is not good, but it’s not so springy as Brooks says it is.
It’s a bit energised for smaller runs of 5k to 10k ok, but for longer runs I don’t like the shoe.
The longest run that I did was around 30K and after a while I was hoping for the run to be over as the shoe was not as comfortable anymore, it started to feel a bit clunky and the energy return was just not good enough for a longer effort.
If I do speed sessions in them I also get hot spots underneath the ball of my feet.
This will obviously depend at what speeds you will try to run, to clarify i’m here talking about speeds of 14 – 15km/h.
Upper
The upper is comfortable with a good amount of padding.
Breathability isn’t bad but not enough for the summer, my guess it’s because of the fabric used in the tongue. It’s a different kind of fabric which doesn’t give much ventilation.
The tongue does feel good, but you quickly notice that it’s warm.
The upper around the forefoot is well ventilated. The thicker padding starts near the heel, which gives you the proper locked in feeling.
Overal for me the shoe is more suitable for runs when it’s a bit more colder.
The laces are long enough and have a very slight stretch, they are perfect if you need to use the runners knob for example.
They don’t come loose very quickly which is also a plus, yeah baby!
Durability
I already ran about 230km in them and as you can see in the video, the outsole still looks very good.
There is not much wear and tear visible which indicates that they will last for quite a while.
The upper is also still in good condition and I don’t expect any issues with this any soon either!
For a price of 170€ for a daily trainer and with such a great durability, that’s a pretty good deal.
Summary
Personally I recommend the Levitate 6’s for your shorter easy runs up until 10 – 15K.
The midsole is a bit firm, but if you take them out on a shorter run, then they are not bad to be honest.
They give you a good stability and comfort but on a longer run they do become a burden, perhaps it’s due to the higher weight, could be…
Will I keep this in my shoe rotation?
During the summer I’m keeping them aside, i will start to use them again in the fall when it’s a bit colder.
I will also not do any longer runs in them.
Around 10K runs would be the maximum for me in these and if I would need to choose between the Ghost 15 or these, I would definitely choose the Ghost’s they just give me a better feeling on a longer run than the Levitate’s.
If you would like to see more actual views of the shoe, do check out the YouTube review, which is included at the top of this page!
