Why We Chose The New Balance Fresh Foam Hierro V5: Comfortable, protective, functional and stylish
New Balance are a brand that have seemingly been on the march in recent years, cooly inserting themselves into popular culture in a way best summed up with the words “those guys are really having a moment right now.”
Their trail running shoe the Fresh Foam Hierro V5 not only looks cool, and on trend, but it also has all the properties, and then some, that you’d want from active outdoor footwear. With all that in mind, including it in this year’s Outdoor 100 was an absolute no brainer.
Who Is The New Balance Fresh Foam Hierro V5 For?
If you love getting out amongst it, on some properly rough terrain, you’ll love what the New Balance Fresh Foam Hierro V5 brings to the trails. It’s got that perfect combination of protection, traction, and comfy cloud-like feel underfoot. Anyone eyeing up some FKTs will relish having these at the bottom of their legs.
Materials
On the materials front, we reckon the real standout here is the Fresh Foam midsole. Created from a single piece of ultra-cushioned foam, this provides a really plush ride, even on the hardest of trails (or any road sections you hit). Elsewhere on the shoe, we’re looking at a synthetic upper with a toe bumper and a Vibram MegaGrip outsole.
The weight per shoe is 325g. Not light then, but not shockingly heavy either.
Features
There’s no point going half in on this feature so we’ll once again get off our seat, make a load of noise, and hold up a big neon sign that says “Check it out. The Fresh Foam midsole on the Hierro V5 is really something.”
Elevating the wearer from sharp rocks and the like, the foam acts as the ultimate big sandwich filler. Softening up the feel of the shoe without weakening it physically, it’s a feature that essentially means you’ll be able to spend more time charging confidently over gnarly terrain and less time worrying about what the impact is doing to your legs’ internal workings.
The heel to toe offset is 8mm, so fairly standard there. As you can probably see from the images there’s a nice roll to the sole unit.
“Elevating the wearer from sharp rocks and the like, the foam acts as the ultimate big sandwich filler”
Another thing about this shoe that will allow you to charge about confidently while safe in the knowledge that your feet are being taken care of is the toe-protecting shrouded construction upper. Sort of like Clint Eastwood making himself big and throwing himself in front of the President in the film ‘In The Line of Fire’, the all-encompassing nature of the upper means the shoe simultaneously protects your toes from harm while also keeping things well and truly debris free.
The Vibram MegaGrip outsole not only serves up maximum surface contact but also multi-directional traction as well, meaning you can move aggressively through the outdoors without fearing that your feet are about to suddenly and completely give way beneath you.
The shoe is available in two colourways – ‘Black with Moonbeam’ and ‘Varsity Gold with Neo Classic Blue and Phantom’.
