New Balance Fresh Foam X Balos: First Run Review of a Premium Plateless Daily Trainer

Introduction

The New Balance Fresh Foam X Balos is an all-new premium daily trainer that sits in the Fresh Foam line but is designed to be comfortable and quite fast at the same time. It takes clear aim at plateless super trainers like the ASICS Super Blast, and it carries the price of that category too: £200 or $200. In a UK size 9 it weighs 251 g (8.8 oz) with a 6 mm drop, a 38.5 mm heel stack and 32.5 mm at the forefoot. There is no plate in the midsole, but the foam is an interesting mix of Pebble and EVA called Fresh Foam X.

What the Balos Is Trying to Be

New Balance has two running lines, Fresh Foam and FuelCell. In broad terms, Fresh Foam shoes lean towards comfortable daily trainers while FuelCell shoes are designed to be fast. The Balos deliberately sits between the two: a Fresh Foam shoe you can use for faster runs, built to do a bit of everything. It also has a certain echo of the old New Balance Beacon, a high-stack, very lightweight trainer that was genuinely fun to run in, though the Balos arrives with a much higher price tag and a more modern, bouncier foam.

Around that foam you get a very pronounced rocker to move you through your foot strike, plus foam sidewalls that add some stability. Stability is worth keeping in mind: although this is not the highest stack shoe around, the foam is quite soft. The upper is an engineered mesh with reflective details at the front and back, plenty of padding around the collar, a fairly stiff internal heel counter, and a lightweight tongue with not much padding. The outsole is mostly exposed, fairly soft EVA, with firmer, more durable rubber patches at the toe off and the outside of the heel in the key impact areas.

Ride and Feel

On a first easy-to-steady 45 minute run with strides at the end, the Balos felt fluid and comfortable underfoot. The rocker is the most notable feature: it is smooth and noticeable without being aggressive, and it works across a wide range of paces. It did not dominate the run or fling you forward, it simply moved the foot strike along nicely and stayed in rhythm as the pace shifted from around 4:30 per km down towards 3:40 per km and into strides.

The foam has that soft, sinking feeling of recent Fresh Foam X shoes, but unlike the very soft 1080 v13, it springs back. The Pebble content in the blend gives it more resiliency and a genuine push off the forefoot. It is not explosive in the way of something like the Mizuno Neo Vista, but there is a nice amount of bounce back paired with comfortable squish on landing. The ride feels well balanced, and despite the soft foam, high stack and pronounced rocker, stability was not a problem on this first run. It rolled through the foot strike on a straightforward neutral trajectory, though runners who already overpronate may want to pay attention on longer efforts.

A taxing fartlek session reinforced the picture. With tired legs from a 36 km hike and a heavy strength session, the shoe’s soft bounce was exactly what was needed. On consistent steady paces, including 1 km efforts around 3:40 per km and short reps down to 3:15 per km, it held up well. But this is not a poppy shoe, and it is not the natural pick if you mainly want it for intervals or fast sessions. Where it shines is comfortable, easy-day, recovery and longer consistent-pace work such as tempo runs and long runs, where the rocker and soft bounce simply carry you along.

Upper and Fit

The fit is comfortable with a little space at the sides of the forefoot and midfoot. It is not the roomiest shoe out there, and the toe box sits fairly low, with the stretchy front fabric touching the toes. Runners with average to wider-than-average width feet should be fine, but if you like a real thumb’s width in front of your big toe, or you sit at the bigger end of your size, going up half a size is worth considering. Testers of UK size 8 and UK 9 both stayed with their normal New Balance size and found it comfortable, with good padding, no lockdown issues and no heel problems.

One quirk worth knowing: both laces came undone at the start of a run and had to be retied tighter, so it may be worth double-knotting. The weight is kept low deliberately to preserve versatility, and it shows. At 251 g it is not as light as the Rebel, yet on the run it felt similarly light, with nothing pulling you down.

How It Compares

Against the New Balance 1080 v13, the Balos has more range. The 1080 is more comfort-focused, with foam so soft you can feel lost in it, while the Balos blends fresh foam X with enough Pebble to spring back and carry you through. Against the FuelCell Rebel, a lightweight plateless versatile trainer, the Balos is softer and more cushioned with far more of a rocker feel, while the Rebel is simpler and firmer with a bit of bounce and protection.

The obvious target is the ASICS Super Blast 2. The Balos can hold its own, but it is not undercutting it in any way, and the Super Blast gives you more foam with a lively ride. There are also plated super trainers such as the Saucony Endorphin Speed and the Hoka Mach X2, which feel more versatile with more punch for speedy runs while still coming in cheaper. Great plateless alternatives like the Rebel and the Hoka Mach 6 also cost less. That makes the Balos’s £200 price its biggest question mark: it is a genuinely good shoe, but it does not feel like a 200 shoe, and it sits more towards the daily-trainer end of the super-trainer spectrum rather than the top-end speed end.

Buying Advice

This is a shoe for long-distance runners with a lot of miles to do, especially during marathon training, who want something that bounces them along, protects their legs and makes heavy-legs sessions more enjoyable. If you want a plateless shoe for easy runs and long runs in the Super Blast mould, it is an interesting and really good option.

Conclusion

Early impressions suggest the Balos is an exciting, fun, capable daily trainer with a well-balanced ride, real versatility and strong leg protection, held back mainly by a premium price in a crowded field. For marathon training miles and comfortable long sessions, it looks like a genuinely rewarding pick.