New Balance
New Balance has been in the business of making running shoes since 1906. While traditionally known for making high quality padded and supportive running athletic shoes it was only a matter of time before New Balance came out with their own “barefoot” running shoe offerings. Two of their shoes, the New Balance MR800, and the New Balance MT100 are similar to Nike Free and Vibram FiveFingers shoes as it is designed to allow runners to run with a midfoot strike and to mimic the natural motion of the foot. The MR800 in particular was inspired by ChiRunning and ChiWalking. The benefit of this midfoot strike technique is this allows your feet to move more naturally, thereby strengthening the feet and lower body and preventing injuries. If you would like to see how they compare to the Nike Frees, check out out review of the Nike Free versus New Balance article.
Introducing The New Balance 800
Benefits of Wearing New Balance Barefoot Shoes
- Strengthens Muscles in foot and lower body.
- Improves flexibility and range in motion in ankle, foot, and toes.
- Improves balance and and body awareness.
- Helps alleviate problems related to the impact of running on the knee
- Extremely light and comfortable.
Why New Balance Barefoot Shoes?
By walking and running barefoot we allow our body to move how it was initially designed. By wearing shoes, however, we change the natural way we walk and run which can lead to sprains, shin splints, and other common foot injuries. The New Balance 800 running shoes attempt to mimic barefoot running by adjusting the shoe design to allow a person’s foot to strike in the middle part of the foot, often referred to as a midfoot strike or forefoot strike. The advantage of this is that there is less stress and impact on your legs and feet.
Dr. William Rossi in a 1999 article in Podiatry Management said it best with regards to going barefoot :
“It took 4 million years to develop our unique human foot and our consequent distinctive form of walk, a remarkable feat of bioengineering. Yet, in only a few thousand years, and with one carelessly designed instrument, our shoes, we have warped the pure anatomical form of human walk, obstructing its engineering efficiency, afflicting it with strains and stresses and denying it its natural grace of form and ease of movement head to foot.”
New Balance News
- New Balance Minimus Information Coming Soon
- New 2011 Barefoot Running Shoe Models!
- New Balance Minimus Teaser Photos and Surprises
- New Balance Minimus is Coming...FiveFingers Watch Out?
- New Balance MT100 Official Review
**Checkout the Barefoot Running Forum and access: barefoot gear talk, FiveFingers talk, barefoot running science and news, and barefoot runners talk **
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey- Any review of the New Balance 100′s? They’re the ultra-minimalist trail design that New Balance has…
hey ryan, we’ll look into getting a pair of those shoes, if any readers has any experience in the new balance 100′s feel free to post your experience with them!
HI
i have used NB 100 for 3 weeks and are very satisfied. They are very comfortable, light and etc., but you have to land on midfoot not on the heel. I learn to natural run for 2 months and is better and better. My first training in this shoes take 2 hours (ab.20 km in forest) and no problem.
Do they have NB MT100′s in sizes 14 or 15 …. If so where can i get them. Thank’s john
@John, I took a look around online and didn’t find any MT100′s in 14 or 15 size. Right now they are getting ready to release their follow up shoe, the MT101 in October so they’ve stopped making new ones. If you can wait until October you can probably snatch up the 101′s which have made improvements over the 100 shoes. Good luck!
Another shoe I’d look at is a New Balance MR790, which is kind of rare. If you’re on the east coast, particularly the northeast, I’d recommend Nordstroms. It’s lightweight (approx 7 oz.) and flexible and thin-soled. Only one thing that might be of concern is that is is marketed as a trail running shoe; personally, I run on blacktop or redtop all the time.