Brooks Glycerin 22 vs Brooks Glycerin 23:
Which to Choose

On the big-picture metrics these two are near twins: identical cushioning (5/6), identical neutral stability (4/6) built on a broad, planted, sidewall-supported base, the same optimal pace window of roughly 5:30–6:30 min/km, and the same happy hunting ground of easy long runs and conversational-effort 10Ks, halves, and marathons. The overall heel stack barely moves — both sit around 37–38mm of foam — so neither is meaningfully more or less protective than the other. The concrete changes are in the details. The 23 drops the heel-to-toe offset from the 22's traditional 10mm down to 8mm, achieved largely by building up the forefoot rather than lowering the heel, which gives a slightly more even, natural forefoot feel while keeping the plush heel landing. Its DNA Tuned foam is zoned more deliberately — larger, softer cells under the heel for impact and smaller, firmer cells up front so you don't sink too deep on toe-off — where the 22 reads as a more uniformly soft, gently springy platform. Our responsiveness metric actually nudges the other way, from 4/6 on the 22 to 3/6 on the 23: neither is a snappy shoe, but the 23 leans a touch further toward pure comfort over pop. The 23 also swaps the 22's engineered mesh for a premium triple-jacquard warp-knit upper with a more wrapped, luxurious hold, and it pays a small weight penalty for it — about 303g in a men's US 9 versus roughly 289g for the 22. In short: the ride character, cushioning, and intended use are essentially unchanged; what shifts is the geometry (lower drop, firmer forefoot) and the upper.