After spending about a month, over 10 CrossFit workouts, and a number of runs in my New Balance Minimus Life shoes I’m ready to write a quality shoe review.
I had wanted to test/review a pair of the New Balance Minimus’s for quite some time. I have a few friends that swear by them as their go to CrossFit training, road running, and trail running shoes, so I was dying to give them a try.
When you first slide the New Balance Minimus Life on your feet they feel amazingly comfortable like very light weight slippers. The Life Minimus’s don’t have traditional laces, they have non adjustable thick elastic laces. This makes is very easy to slip them on and off. I don’t like my shoes too tight unless I’m trail running, and I don’t plan on using these for the trails, so I love the elastic laces.
The Fit
The New Balance Minimus’s are very light wight, which I love, but the toe box gets a little narrow for me to have an ideal fit. Unfortunately getting a wider size wouldn’t help because the heel and arch of the shoe fit great. My foot is somewhat narrow near the heel and with a wider forefoot. To some extent the toe box has stretched and conformed to my feet, but there’s still a little rubbing on my third and forth toes. I give the fit a 7 our of 10 for my feet, but they could fit your feet great. They would get a 10 out of 10 for fit if my toes didn’t slightly rub.
Click HERE to checkout the NewBalance Minimus Life shoes from Amazon.com
The Road Ride
The Minimus has a cushy but thin rubber/foam bottom. It’s a great combination of being able to feel the ground, but not having rocks destroy your feet. I give the road (and other flat surface) ride a 10 out of 10!
The CrossFit Ride
One of the major reasons that I wanted to get a pair of New Balance Minimus’s was to crush CrossFit workouts. For the most part these are great CrossFit training shoes. Your feet stay comfy and very light durning box jumps and double unders, and can feel the ground during dead lifts and squats. The only issue that I ran into while CrossFitting was when running and having to cut quickly. When I cut quickly my foot slid around in the shoe and resulted in an unstable environment. As a CrossFit shoe I give them an 8 out of 10.
Just Chillin’
If you’re going to slide these shoes on with your favorite jeans they are the bomb! Quick to get on, comfy like your favorite slippers, and can do anywhere. For Just chillin’ I give the Minimus’s get a 10 outta 10!
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