The well-known New Balance is very popular among the running lovers. What’s more, along with the ASICS, SAUCONY, BROOKS, NIKE, ADIDAS and MIZUNO, the seven brands occupy the majority of the international running shoes market share with each having advanced running shoes technology. In recent years, New Balance’s main running shoes can be divided into three lines, the Fresh Foam, the Vazee and the NBx. And today’s protagonist is the New Balance Fresh Foam Vongo which, as you could have guessed from its name, belongs to the Fresh Foam series. Besides, it is also the only shoe in the series that has won the Best Debut awarded by the famous American magazine, RUNNER S WORLD.
Here is the shoes’ performance review. Regarding its appearance, honestly, I was not so surprised as did my friends because I thought the shoes were so ordinary and its colorway was not novel, either. And to tell the truth, if it is put with the many running shoes of today, I certainly wouldn’t fall in love with it at the first sight. But anyway, this is to a great extent depended on the subjective views.
What’s worse, the shoe also impresses me by the chunky appearance which made me think it was heavy. However, it was only when I grabbed it on my hands that did I know I was wrong. Actually, it is much lighter than the other shoes with the same support performance. When I actually put the shoes on, I quite forgot the negative impressions about it and just couldn’t wait to exercise.
The vamp adopts the breathable 3 d mesh fabrics. And indeed the vamp’s air permeability is like a “double-edged sword”: you’ll feel very cool underfoot in hot summer days, but in autumn and winter, you’ll experience the piercing wind which seems to tear your skin. So this is not recommended in winter.
The vamp and the tongue with average thickness are not integrated. And there are shoelace buckles that prevent the tongue from moving upward. As soon as I put on the shoes, I felt the inside of the shoes was spacious so that my toes could move freely.
The logo “N” and the strip in the heel are both reflective which are quite obvious at night, thus protecting runners from possible danger.
Looking from the outside, there seems no supporting material in the arch. However, the supporting tech used here is not the dual-density midsole, such as Duomax of ASICS GT2000, or the rigid plastic support, such as Nike Air Zoom Structure 19. Instead, by increasing the thickness of the midsole and adopting the compact triangular structure(as shown in the image below), the support performance of the shoe is improved greatly.
And the outer side of the midsole is the honeycomb structure(as is also shown below) which is here to provide comfortable cushioning. Such design can retain the superior cushioning and feedback of the Fresh Foam material, and at the same time provides sufficient support for the arch.
For the outsole, it adopts the foam rubber which is patterned with grains of quite different density. However, as the gaps between the grains are a bit big, grits or stones might easily get stuck in them. Therefore, this requires frequent cleaning, which would be a little troublesome.
The structure of Vongo has been determined by its poor flexibility. But despite that, some buyers still observed that the outsole can offer a nice grip and is also wear-resident notwithstanding the big gaps.
Overall:
In short, the New Balance Fresh Foam Vongo is a pair of stable shoes with nice support while at the same time offering enough cushion. And for those who want to pick a pair of shoes with sufficient protection, this New Balance Fresh Foam Vongo might also be a good choice for them.