New Balance Fresh Foam More V3 First Run Review: Cushioned Comfort With a Surprisingly Versatile Ride

Introduction

Some shoes announce themselves immediately, and others win you over with how little they get in the way. The New Balance Fresh Foam More V3 sits firmly in the second camp. This is a heavily cushioned road shoe built for training miles, yet after a first 14k run through the hills, it felt far more capable than its chunky profile suggests.

It costs £130 or $164.99, weighs 288 g or 10.2 oz for men in a size 8, and has a 4 mm drop. Those numbers read like a classic max-cushion trainer, and the More V3 does deliver plenty of that. What surprised us was how much else it managed to do on the first outing.

What the Fresh Foam More V3 Is Designed For

The More V3 is built around a thick midsole of Fresh Foam, the same compound found in popular New Balance options like the 1080 V11 and the 860 V12. It is a foam that offers a good balance between cushioning and responsiveness, and here it is stacked generously to deaden impact over lots of training miles.

The engineered mesh upper is plush and feels sturdy and reinforced, combining with a wide base to give the shoe a stable, reliable overall feel. There is a lace closure design with trace fiber eyelets for a locked-down fit, plus a healthy covering of rubber on the outsole over the key contact areas.

Fit and Upper Comfort

Sizing is straightforward: the shoe fits true to size in a size 8. It is a generous fit, with plenty of room through the forefoot and midfoot, and it does not feel narrow in the slightest.

The upper is more reinforced than what you find in the 1080 V11, with extra padding around the top of the shoe, a secure lacing system designed to lock the foot down, and plenty of cushioning around the ankle and heel. Despite all that room, the foot feels nicely held in place. The overall design language is similar to the 1080 V11, essentially that shoe with loads more padding and comfort added.

Ride Feel: Softer Than It Looks? Not Quite

Here is the biggest surprise. Press the foam out of the box and it feels like there is a lot of give, but on the road the ride is firmer than expected. It does deaden impact effectively, but this is not a mushy soft shoe. The midsole feels sturdy, not particularly bouncy, and not wobbly either.

At a base pace of around 5-minute kilometers, the shoe felt very comfortable and enjoyable, doing a lot of the hard work on impact. At no point during the 14k run did the legs feel any issues from the pounding. And despite the volume of foam, the shoe never felt slow or sluggish. It genuinely feels like you could run faster in it when you want to.

Stability and Smooth Turnover

With this much cushioning, wobble is a real risk in many max-cushion shoes. The More V3 avoids it. The Fresh Foam midsole feels stable rather than soft, and the wide base keeps the ride secure and planted. The shoe also felt almost unnoticeable on the feet, which is remarkable for something this chunky. At 288 g it is not light, yet it runs considerably lighter than it looks.

The shoe carries the largest rocker in the Fresh Foam range. It does not feel like it is actively propelling you forward, but there is a very smooth transition and an easy turnover, and picking up the pace felt effortless rather than labored.

How It Compares

The closest comparison is the Fresh Foam 1080 V11: the More V3 is essentially that shoe made more comfortable and more cushioned, though it gives up some of the 1080’s versatility. The feel also sits somewhere between two familiar trainers. Compared to the Hoka Clifton range, the More V3 has more cushioning but a similar balance of softness and firmness. Compared to the Saucony Triumph 19, which offers a similar level of cushioning but with a softer, bouncier rebound, the More V3 sits right in the middle of those two.

Outsole coverage is healthy, covering the front and rear key areas with some exposed midsole foam in the middle. Given how thick the rubber and foam are, wear is expected to take a while.

Buying Advice

After this first run, the More V3 comes across as a very comfortable, enjoyable workhorse. It is not a race shoe, but it is not just a slow-run cushion plodder either. If you want lots of cushioning and support from a wide base while still being able to pick up the pace on occasion, this shoe ticks a lot of boxes. It is a strong candidate for daily training miles, recovery runs, long efforts, and even marathon training, especially on the days when you just want the shoes to take the brunt of the work.

Conclusion

The New Balance Fresh Foam More V3 impressed on its first run: comfortable and impact-deadening, stable thanks to its wide base, and surprisingly versatile with an easy turnover at faster paces. Fans of cushioned shoes who want a reliable trainer for as many miles as possible should find a lot to like here, and a fuller verdict will follow once the shoe has been put through more fast-paced testing.