The New Balance 1080 is one of the most popular shoes amongst running friends of mine. They are a staple for people looking for a cushioned runner. In today’s market, there has become a delineation between plated shoes and everyday offerings. Most companies would like you to choose a traditional trainer for logging most, if not all, of your miles. If someone were to have slightly narrower feet than I, then the narrowness of the toebox would not be an issue. My feet are not very wide, but are larger and wider than normal. The tongue on the 1080v11 is a short, lightly-padded mesh that's partially gusseted. It’s comfortable but its length (how far down the upper it goes) does make it a bit more challenging to put on than a shoe with a longer tongue that allows the upper to open up more when unlaced. This max cushion offering will go against the Brooks Glycerin, Adidas UltraBoost, Hoka One One Clifton or Bondi, Saucony Triumph, Saucony Endorphin Shift, Nike Vomero and more.

Ready for more good news? Never again will you have to choose between function and fashion. New Balance is proud to offer fresh, exciting styles that are as modern as they are timeless - created with an ideal balance of aesthetics and function in mind. How should running shoes fit? I noticed it in the Fresh Foam More v2, which is one of my favorite shoes out there, and here it works just as well. The laces are annoying, and the fact that they came untied so often left me very annoyed, but that’s an easy fix. Honestly, the most annoying negative is the volume of the shoe when landing. It secures the heel, while not putting any pressure on my Achilles. This is important to me, because of my experience with Achilles Tendonitis. When looking at the negatives, they are fairly minimal. The upper is a bit too narrow in the toebox, but that issue will not be a problem for most runners.However, these negatives don’t even come close to offset the positives. The cushion is great, although it needs a couple of runs to break in, and quite responsive. Every run I went on with a single knot ended with untied shoes, and even a few double knotted runs resulted in an untied shoe.

Below the midsole, the 1080 offers a very nice outsole. Using mostly blown rubber, the outsole is very durable and offers a great amount of grip for an everyday trainer. The forefoot rubber on the outsole itself is a bit harder durometer (85.2hc) than average (77.4) and should add some longevity to these shoes if you’re interested in running in them for hundreds of miles. Surprisingly lightweightIf this shoe was evaluated solely based on comfort it would be 5 stars, but it's a running shoe and it misses the mark by quite a bit. Superb comfort The outsole is pretty cool on the 1080v11. It’s almost a lugged design rather than a flat road trainer, and I dig this. However, they took about 10-15 miles to break in and get to feel softer on the forefoot. That was a surprisingly long break-in for me.