New Running Shoe: Review

The lovely people at New Balance recently sent me a pair of 1260v2 Ladies running shoes.
This is the blurb from their website.

"Take a little trip in the low-riding New Balance 1260v2, a stunning update to the popular 1260 that's closer to the ground for better control. Engineering superior stability from the pavement on up, this premium running shoe enhances performance with Stabilicore™ medial posting and dual-sided T-beam technologies to provide stellar arch and gait support. Seriously lightweight yet luxuriously cushioned, the 1260v2 gives the mild to moderate overpronator a better ride than ever before."

After reading the description I was looking forward to trying them out. I'm a very mild overpronator and have been told I could run in pretty much anything I wanted. The stability underneath looks fairly minimal and the shoe feels light. Putting it on it felt rather small, but once it was laced up it really locked my foot back into the heel and was absolutely fine.

It's a really comfortable, soft, cushioned shoe and as with all new running shoes my first run felt like I was running along with two trampolines stuck to my feet!  I don't subscribe to the school of thought that suggests you need to 'run new shoes in' (having run a marathon in a fairly new pair) these didn't have that 'new shoe' stiffness and I felt as though I'd already been running in them.

The lacing comes up quite high over your foot, which means your foot stays locked in place throughout the run. Running in the winter is inevitably a wet job, the lightweight mesh on the front didn't hold out much water and about a mile in I had a pretty wet foot! 


I'm happy to report, that after a few test runs, I rather like these running shoes, the main plus point for me being the lightweight feel of the shoe, the only draw back is that with less fabric on the front of the shoe there is little to repel the water away. I think they would make ideal racing shoes, though the lightweight may suggest they are a more faster 10k/ half marathon short distance shoe, rather than for longer run like a marathon distance.

I give them 8/10. I will update this later on in the year and let you know how they are shaping up to job of marathon training.