Sing the Praises of the New Balance 858

Oh, New Balance 858. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways!

The toebox on the NB 858 is narrower than the toebox on the 857—similar to the 856 in style. And that, as Martha Stewart says, is a good thing. My toes were all over the place with my 857s and I paid the price with blisters from my big toe to my small toe. No longer. My toes are now comfortably snug in the 858 and they certainly do not chafe. Thank the running lord.

The cushioning on the 858 is perfect. After using my 857s long after their expiration date (“These look like they’ve seen better days,” said the woman helping me out at my local running shoe store), I was ready for some sort of support. From heel to forefoot, it finally feels like I’m running on something other than cardboard. As a result, all my subsequent cardio workouts have been spirited runs. My hamstring’s only a touch tight and no longer bothers me during my runs or afterwards. With some stretching and the legwork I’m doing, I think the nagging tightness will disappear shortly.

The colors! Check out this beauty—for some reason, I’m in love with the combination of orange and blue, and always associate the combination with races. The Nike Women’s Marathon did it in 2005; New York does it all the time thanks to ING. When I saw that the 858 was out and that the women’s version echoed the colors I link to races, I was pretty geeked about my preference for the 850s series.

In all seriousness, this is pretty damn good shoe—for me, a vast improvement over the New Balance 857. All my foot issues are gone now that I have the new shoe in hand. Part of the problem, admittedly, was that I didn’t replace my shoes when their time was up. However, the 857 gave me problems from the start, including top-of-foot pain that I relieved by straight lacing my shoes. I’ve carried over the lacing technique to the 858, but I felt that the 857 was oddly constructed from the start. The cushioning and stability were always top-notch, but the other issues, minor as they were, were a deal-break for me; subconscious me probably forced my pocketbook to stay still until the 858 was released to see if these problems were corrected.

The NB 858 has definitely topped the Nike Air Converge Triax as my favorite shoe; I can only hope that the 850s series stays constant (having perfected the series with the 858 in my humble opinion) and does not fade into discontinuation like the Converge Triax did.