Riding on the heels of the first Minimus shoe collection that had a 4mm heel to toe drop, the Minimus Zero have arrived, and these shoes are a masterpiece of functional industrial design.

New Balance Minimus Zero Road, $109.99, www.newbalance.com

The Good: A stylish, fast and lightweight minimal shoe with the perfect balance of protection and simplicity, allowing the wearer to run with better natural form and body mechanics.

The Bad: Watch out for the tongue bunching on the top of the foot or you may feel a sharp pain.

The Ugly: Nothing ugly about these shoes — in fact, be prepared to get some compliments.

When the New Balance Minimus Zero collection finally arrived on the market, I was anxious to get my hands on a pair. Having had huge success in races with the lightweight, 4mm drop, MT110 trail shoe, I’ve been eager to try out other minimal footwear by New Balance. My opportunity arrived when the Minimus Zero Road shoes showed up at my front door. Out of the box, these shoes look to have incredible design features. Since minimal footwear has grown in popularity, companies like New Balance have jumped on this shift in the market to push innovative industrial design. The Minimus Zero Road shoes are a testament to the new possibilities around creating minimal footwear with a lot of technological design, but very little shoe.

Within 20 minutes of opening the box, I slipped on my new 6.5-ounce kicks, and ran out the door to take them for a spin through the streets of D.C. My very first impression was that while the bright green flashes I could see in my lower periphery were evidence I was wearing something on my feet, I felt like I had nothing on at all. By giving the shoes a zero-drop heel to toe platform with 12mm of stack height, the designers struck a nice balance with the cushioning. The zero-drop shoes I’ve worn previously have had less than 10mm cushioning, which is too little for longer distances, or over 15mm, which can decrease the ground-feel benefits. The sole thickness of the Minimus Zero Road allows for good ground-feel and proper proprioception (the highly geeky way of saying the stimuli feeling your body has for good awareness and sensing of one’s body in space).

With my sleek, neon shoes on, I bombed down a hill from my neighborhood and headed for the National Mall. Because I have wide Hobbit-like feet, I am often concerned about shoes being too narrow, which causes foot cramps and worn holes in the sides of my shoes. I was comfortably surprised to find that these shoes were not too narrow and that my toes could naturally splay. In comparison to the original Minimus MT10, these shoes are even lighter due to their upper mesh construction. I was also a bit concerned that my foot would easily move around when running fast due to the stretchy and loose mesh. When trying on the original Minimus MT10 in stores, I felt that my foot was constricted by the rubber support bands, which made me skeptical coming into this shoe review. The Minimus Zero Road also has support bands, but they have been reengineered to be lighter and non-constricting to wrap across the toes, top of the foot and around the heel. With the barely-there support bands, my foot did not swim in the shoe but rather stayed in place for all speeds and intensity. In addition, I was surprised at how comfortable the shoes were to wear without socks due to the limited stitch and seam construction.

Stepping off the pavement and onto the gravel paths of the National Mall, I found little difference in ground-feel. At times, I stepped on larger rocks, but the shoe dissipated the force and shock of the rock with the flat rubber inverted pod outsole, and the lightweight midsole foam cushioning. The lightweight mesh upper does not seem extremely protective, but so far, it has held up reasonably well in grass, dirt and other surfaces.

On my way home, I started to feel a sharp pain in the top of my right foot, so I stopped to investigate. Pulling off my shoe, I found that the tongue had bunched on the top right side of my foot, creating pressure from the fabric and lace eyelets. I don’t know if this is an isolated experience, but it’s something I have been careful not to let happen again when I put the shoes on. The tongue construction is different than most shoes because it is only cut on one side rather than both, therefore limiting moving pieces and stitching, and allowing the foot to have more of a cradled support. I appreciate the new tongue design, but am now careful to make sure that the fabric doesn’t bunch up toward the inside front of the shoe.

After the initial run of 8 miles through DC, I went on several others that consisted of distances from one to 27 miles. For this review, I have run a total of 58 miles (not including the miles I have walked and biked around the city in these shoes, all the while getting compliments on how cool they look from both strangers and friends). Usually after 50 miles, shoes are beginning to look a bit worn, but these still look close to new. I have run the majority of these miles without socks in mostly humid and hot days, so they’re beginning to have a slight smell — but nothing that soaking in a bucket of Oxy Clean won’t solve. There have been a couple of rainy days, too, and I found that these shoes cleaned well and air-dried quickly.

If you are looking for a shoe that has zero drop, less overall material, and nice ground-feel, and is lightweight, fast, durable and eye-catching, then this shoe is for you. Its balanced cushioning, innovative design and barely-there feel make it a good shoe for both the seasoned runner and the newcomer to zero-drop footwear.

 

Tags:  awesome barefoot running footwear minimalist minimus new balance running running shoes trail running vibram zero drop