New Balance Minimus Road WR00SP

I finally got my next pair of shoes to test from New Balance - the Minimus Road WR00SP!  I'm not sure if they are the current version or the new version coming out in March 2012 in the US.  I could not find them anywhere on the New Balance website.  But I did find them on the New Balance Australia website here.  So maybe they are the current version, but the color scheme is not available in the US?  However, I did find pictures of the new version that has zero drop from heel to toe (the current version has 4mm drop) and they look exactly like these except yellow color.  So I don't know.  For reference, here are mine:

And here are the new ones coming out in the US in March from birthdayshoes.com:

I don't know, they look exactly the same to me save for the color???  Whatever...

By the way, they are selling them for $180 AUD.  That's quite pricey.  But I remember from my days of living in Australia, every brand was marked up more there.  The US is still the cheapest place to shop.  Hahaha. So I wouldn't be surprised if these are right around 100 USD here.

These shoes are crazy light!!  When I first received them I really thought the shoe box was empty.  They are definitely the lightest of all the minimalist shoes I have so far, which are the Nike Frees and the Adidas Adios 2.  I like that they are white too!  Because the other shoes are so bright and it's nice to have a neutral colored pair.  They have a little pink in them too, super cute.  All the silver on them are reflective too.  Good for outdoor running.  I took some pictures of them on me... you definitely have to wear no show socks with these shoes - Lululemon socks will show like they do here (I don't have the no-show Lulu ones).

So these definitely resemble barefoot running more than my other 2 pairs.  In fact I think they are probably as close as it gets other than the Vibrams.  I got them on Friday so I wore them on Saturday, Sunday and today and probably ran about 10 miles total.  You really can feel everything under your feet with these on!  They are very soft, flexible and almost gelly.  People have commented that they look like slippers.  They have Vibram bottoms.  My calves were a little sore after wearing them even though I have been wearing these types of shoes for a while now.  So it must be the more significant drop of the heels that made the difference!  I haven't had a chance to test them outside as I have been doing only treadmill runs.  I'm really curious how they will feel on real road.  I did some weights with them on as well and I think they hold my feet in better than my Nike Frees - my feet kind of fall towards the outside of the shoe when I wear the Nike Frees.  So I'm excited to wear these more!

And I will end this post with some stock photos I took of them from the Aussie website: