New Balance Shoes Give New Meaning To "Comfort"
Written: May 17 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Design, Comfort, Brand Reputation, Obstacles? Bring em' on!.
Cons: Tight at first, Expensive, yellow on gray?
The Bottom Line: Very well worth $50-90.
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| hyundai_fan's Full Review: New Balance 806 All Terrain Series Running Shoes |
When you've lived with a family like mine, you'd see how often that we used to get new shoes. New shoes for us used to cost around $20 at Wal*Mart.
It wasn't those good brands either. Cheap bands were always advertising the latest "advanced shoe technology" and they were trying to pull you into buying their shoes only to see that two months down the road your feet would hurt like mad.
In the past year I have had the same problem as well as the normal occurrance of shoe wear that happens very prematurely (usually I would buy a new pair every other month). It was then I bought a shoe from a company called Vans. They were good shoes but the leather on them turned from gray to brown.
Six months later my mother went to work and noticed that at least half of the other workers wore New Balance shoes. Being on their feet eight hours a day is rough so they recommended her to buy a pair because "once you wear New Balance you never go back to normal shoes".
A test to prove this comment was in order. What I did next was search on the Internet for a week and found a good pair of 806's.
Once you decide to buy a pair you'll need to get past the price: $90. After buying so many shoes at $20 this was "no small feet", excuse the pun. I recommend going to eBay which I bought a pair of size 12 D mens for $51.
I've heard that the shoes come in different colors like black and tan (if someone would please tell me the complete list of colors I would be happy to write them down in this review and put a link to the member's profile page). I got black and gray with yellow trim which I admit does not look great together, but I have gotten used to them.
Once they arrived I was able to do some "product testing". I normally wear size 12s anyway so once I tried putting them on I was surprised by how tight they were. I didn't magically grow a couple sizes overnight so I tried what a normal human being would do; I loosened the laces, pulled up the tongue and tried again. About ready to give up after three tries I put two fingers in the back of the shoe, made a makeshift shoehorn and jammed my feet into them, not noticing the burn marks I had on my hand (just kidding, it wasn't that bad). You pay over $50 for shoes too and you'll see what I mean.
Now that I had them on I did some walking around. They were still a little tight at first but broke in and became all right the next day. One thing to pay attention to is the thickness of the shoes. They nearly lose all the sensitivity that you normally feel in shoes. Instead of feeling bumps or cracks within a sidewalk all I felt was cushioning.
At the time I had put them on I had to drive to a couple of places for my parents to do their around town errands. This was no easy task either. The thick, air cushioned bottoms, which greatly make walking a breeze, deleted most of the feeling through the car's pedals and so driving was a chore until I got used to them. Still being a newbie at a stick-shift, I had a hard time with this area. Fortunately I also had gotten used to the feeling.
The ultimate test for these shoes would be at my high school. Being a four story building, I have to walk up all those flights of stairs about 3 to 4 times each day. So my routine went like this: I got to school, got to class, and then I evaluated how soft, supportive and expensive-feeling the New Balance shoes were in areas like tile, carpet and stairs. What I mean by "expensive-feeling" is the feeling that 1) these shoes feel durable enough to work in any terrain, 2) they are thick and don't feel so thin and basic as other footwear, and 3) you feel that they are expensive for the fact that they have a waterproof coating on the rubber so it reduces the amount of water that is soaked into the shoes during for example a light rain.
The latter gave me an idea.
What I then did on that day was step in a couple of mud puddles. Thankfully it rained in Vermont and so this was easy to do. After stepping through normal-sized rain puddles, I then was confident enough to walk at a normal pace through the puddle (none of that "stick your foot there and take it out" stuff either) and my feet were still not wet.
Once I got to the stairs I purposely tried to walk on the edges of each to see how much I could feel the sharp corners. I could not feel much of the stairs and I felt right at ease climbing the stairs like it was no problem (usually my knees feel stressed out after climbing them).
Overall, it may have taken a day to get used to them but it is true that once you start wearing them you will not go back to any other shoe. They contoured around rises in the floor, nearly making me bounce they were so cushiony--I tried to lightly jump to feel that--, and I could walk around the school several times both up and down the stairs without any sore feet. That sold me right then and there.
So now since I've explained my whole ordeal with the New Balance shoes, there is one more thing I have to tell you.
New Balance has two major types of shoes for kids like me. There is a walking shoe, which is supposed to keep your feet straight and support each curve of your foot during normal walking, then there is the running shoe, which these are. They're also called all-terrain shoes and have more air cushioning in the soles as well as a more bendable construction so any trails I happen to walk across become easier to navigate. For example I could walk on a branch and not have it intrude inside the shoe as much as with normal footwear.
I am very pleased with my decision on New Balance 806 shoes. Although expensive, you get what you pay for and so I believe I will walk down a road of happiness in them (don't you just love sayings like that?)
There is one type of shoe that I felt were close to New Balance quality and they were the shoes from Vans. They usually are treated with leather and are gray with red trim. These did not have any model name that I could see but after trying different types of shoes from the company before buying my pair I felt that they felt similar to each other. However they tend to have basic no-frills tread pattern and probably would be best to not wear them during the winter. That immediately lets you know that New Balance did their homework on what a real outdoor shoe should have.
Final Score For New Balance 806 Shoes: 4 out of 5 (80%)
~Scott
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
hyundai_fan
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Member: Scott K
Reviews written: 107
Trusted by: 26 members
About Me:
A gay, Subaru-driving Vermonter.
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