New Balance Minimus trail

Product Review

Barefooters
Apr 3, 2012
64
0
6
Reviewed by: Cozmos74
Date Product Reviewed: 06/01/2011
Product Type: Footwear

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The New Balance Minimus Trail is a great shoe. I have just worn out my first pair and thought I'd share my thoughts about them.
While the shoe does have a 4mm drop it is hardly noticable on trails, and not significant when running on the road either. The inside of the shoe is designed to be comfortable enough to wear without a sock, which is great because i don't like wearing socks.
Initially the shoe caused a small blister on the back of my right heel, but this is to be expected when wearing a new shoe. Blisters are no big deal though, and after the blister healed I never developed another.

The Vibram sole is attached to a foam base. The design of the sole is such that weight is kept to a minimum and flexibility is maximised. when I first saw the sole I was concerned that it would be ripped apart by the rocks on the trails that I run. But to my suprise the EVA foam has held out. The sole is constructed to maintain maximal ground feel. While you don't have as much feel as you might in something like a VFF Bikila, you can still feel every rock as yuo run over them but have good protection from bruising.
After running about100 miles in them the Vibram Sole started to detach from the foam. I glued it back on and still run in them.

The pod design of the sole provides excellent traction on all surfaces. Now that they are worn right out they are a little slippy in the mud, but until now thay have stuck rock solid to rocks, mud, every surface I have run on.
The toe box is wider than a regular runnng shoe but still caused me some discomfort and blistering on my right little toe but only on runs of more than 20 miles. The fabric allows for great freedom of movement in the toe box.
Apart from all of this, I love the look of the shoe, it looks like it was made to race and it performs the same.

I took mine to the limit in the Alpine Challenge 100 mile race in March this year. It is considered to be the toughest trail ultr in Australia. I didn't wear any socks (which attracted a lot of attention) but at the end of the race I had only one blister, that was on my little toe due to crowding. The guy that came in behind me weraring his whiz bang Salomon trail shoes had no skin left on his feet.
These shoes are designed to wear sockless. so while you may get some crap in the shoe, water dries, feet stink but runing is comfortable and fun.
The New Balance Minimus is my favorite shoe. It will be tought to beat this design - as far as I am concernec anyway.

PS this is of course only my opinion
Happy running people.
Love ya
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