Carbon-plates have been making their way into trail shoes for while now and New Balance has just joined the plated trail party with it’s latest do-it-all, all-terrain trail running shoes, the New Balance SuperComp Trail. As the name suggests, this shoe takes some of its DNA from New Balance’s SuperComp road line-up but they say this shoe is built to tackle everything the trails can throw at you. We’re already busy testing for a full review but in the meantime, here’s our first run impressions of the new New Balance SuperComp Trail.
JUMP STRAIGHT IN:
0:00 – Intro
0:27 – Design Details: Stack, Drop, Weight & Price
2:00 – How’s the Fit?
2:24 – First Run Test & Early Impressions
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Hey people welcome to the run test it's Kieran here I have come to really really Very sunny effing next neck of the woods I'm here with new balance and we are About to take the New Balance fuel cell Trail shoe for a first run they're Relatively newly launched this is the First time I'm going to get a spin and Then we are going to go and Meander our Way for about a 10K around Epping forest In the big Bernie baking sun let's go And have a look and see how these shoes Run So the New Balance SC Trail have a Pretty sizable stack with 36 and a half Mils on the heel and 26 and a half in The forefoot for a 10 mil drop when it Comes to weight they weigh 8.9 ounces or 253 grams in our test men's UK eight and A half and on price they're going to set You back 200 pounds in the UK or 199 in The US so let's give you a quick round Of the shoe then well up top you have Engineered mesh uppers these are quite Tightly woven and they're quite dense With overlays in the high abrasion areas And you've got this toe protection Material supposed to help give a little Extra protection in case you kick rocks And Roots the midsole features a system With two layers of different density Fuel cell foam the first layer close to The foot has the same fuel cell you'll Find in the fuel cell Elite road racer
That's new balance's most cushioned and Responsive foam underneath at the bottom Of the foot you have a fuel sole that's A touch heavier and more resilient That's to add stability and durability Sandwich between those two in the middle There is a forked carbon plate like You'll find on most of the plated trail Shoes that have started to hit the Shelves Flipping over and the SC Trail outsole Uses vibrant Mega grip light base that's 30 lighter and a bit Slimmer than four Mega grip you've got fairly shallow lugs And you've got different grip patterns In the forefoot and the heel to provide Grip on the climbs and the descents They're also Flex grooves in the Outsource so the middle and lateral Sections of the sole can move Independently when they need to when You're hitting lumps and bumps giving You more flexibility and more control as You're moving across the trails So when it comes to fit I ran in the UK And a half which is my regular running Shoe size and I have to say that these Come up a little bit tight if you're Being generous you'd say that they were Race fitting but this feels like a shoe That you might want to half a size up Particularly if you're planning to run Ultra distances For shorter 10K Trail efforts that
Really locked in fit was fine but for Longer I definitely prefer a little more Room So we're just back from a little seven Mile looping Epping forest in the New Balance fuel cell super comp Trail I Mean next neck of the woods didn't tell Him I was here though um just in case he Came out and chased me around the forest Too fast But yeah so this is basically a trail Shoe that is built for all terrain it Has got a carbon plate in it a fork Carbon plate you've got the fuel cell Midsole foam you'll find in the other Super comp trainers At the top there's two different Densities of foam in this shoe though One is a little bit softer a little bit More responsive at the top a little bit More cushioned and then you've got Something that's a little bit sort of Firmer a bit stronger a bit more durable At the bottom got very shallow lugs I Think they're like four mil lugs so They're not too aggressive with a Pattern that offers you a different kind Of um grip pan at the front and the heel For your ups and downs on the terrain But yeah these are basically made for Doing any distance really anything from Short to Long And across a range of Paces but Definitely able to go fast overall the
Uppers are pretty locked in this has got Quite a race fit in them they are Anything a little bit narrow perhaps in The size so these might be shoes that You might want to go half a size up in Though so we've just taken them out on The pretty compact hard it's really Sunbaked Trails here in Epping Forest a Lot of it was a sort of rolling nothing Too steep or too technical But this first impressions of this Really good for that exact kind of run You know if you're talking about groomed Compact Trails exactly the kind of thing That I would run in the New Forest or Along kind of river pods those kind of Trails and they have coped really really Well I found good amount of stability they Feel pretty natural on the feet the Spring that you're getting or I guess That kind of stiffness and propulsion From the plate isn't overly aggressive It adds a little bit of stability to That softer fuel cell foam which I think Works really nicely and yeah overall my Foot has felt really sort of nicely held Again I wasn't doing anything with too Twisty and turning so I haven't really Tested if there's any sort of movement To the media or lateral side too much But what I have done there these shoes I've cope with really nicely and as ever One of the things I look for in the
First run is when you put the shoes on How do they feel when you first get out There do they have a nice disappearing Natural feel and they did I I you know Just kind of shoe that I could forget That I was wearing in the main although Yeah again on the fit I think maybe There's a little bit of tightness up Front in the toe boxes it's got quite a Dialed in racy fit so you're going to Have to like that Huh overall seven miles in I think about An hour or so time on feet and the best Compliment I can pay them right now After that first run is that they are Springy and propulsive enough that I Would consider using them on Sunday I'm Going to run the New Forest Marathon So that is a mixture of tarmac and Trails exactly the kind of things that We've just run on now and these have now Jumped into yeah consideration for that Race I might well take them out and do a Marathon test in them I wouldn't be Doing that if they weren't forgiving Enough and comfortable enough for that Kind of distance that kind of three and A half hour four hour time on feet so Yeah that is the new balance Fuel cell supercom Trail shoe uh yeah There'll be more we'll do a full review On the channel once I've had more time To do more miles in them but first run Verdict I think these are going to be a
Nice good versatile Trail shoe that a Lot of Runners will like across a Mixture of paces and terrains yeah a Really interesting one I'm looking Forward to doing some more miles in them Foreign
