Merrell Trail Glove Review

Finally my Merrell Trail Glove Review!

Merrell Trail Glove

STATS

Weight: 6.2 ozs
List Price: $110
Drop: 0 mm

New Balance Minimus Line – Available March 1

New Balance is releasing it’s own line of “minimalist” running shoes on March 1.  The lineup consists of the Minimus Trail, Minimus Road and the Minimus Life.  Both the Trail and the Road have gotten pretty good reviews from testers (the Life is geared to be an “everyday shoe” so I haven’t paid attention to it…)  All 3 feature a 4mm drop and the awesome <=> logo (the Enginerd in me loves it.)

The 2 running shoes have thicker soles than would be found on most “minimalist” shoes, testament to the fact that shoe definitions have become very watered down and geared towards whatever is trendy at the moment.  Barefooters will gripe about the lack of ground feel such thick soles will cause and of course the 4mm drop.  But for those of us looking for a “tweener” (the dreaded transitional shoe) this might be an interesting option.

I’ve been rotating between my Asic Hyperspeeds (a size too small) and the Merrells and have been looking for another shoe to do some long runs in.  I’m interested in a little padding and enough heal to protect against the chance of returning to heal strike as my form breaks down or I start to push hard at the end of a race, while still being minimal enough to maintain proper forefoot strike with ease.  I’ve been planning on picking up a pair of Asic Piranhas (mainly because of my Asic loyalty) but after reading some of the New Balance reviews, I may have to figure them into the equation…

Check out these reviews of the Trails from those lucky enough to get the test pairs:

Barefoot Running University: http://barefootrunninguniversity.com/2010/11/17/new-balance-minimus-trail-review/

Running and Rambling: http://www.runningandrambling.com/2011/02/new-balance-minimus-trail-review-and.html

UPCOMING MERRELL TRAIL GLOVES REVIEW

I’m a gear junkie.  That’s the only way to explain the pile of camping gear that takes up most of my walk in closet.  I’ve reviewed camping gear in the past, but never running gear – the beauty of running was the need for relatively little gear (especially for 5Ks.)

My recent decision to start looking at Marathons and potentially Ultras along with my desire to go to more minimalist / barefoot running has (perhaps ironically) gotten me looking at new running gear.  I went out and got a pair of Vibram 5 fingers but returned them before running in them after discovering that wearing them around the house caused my toes to start to go numb because my feet just don’t fit the 5 finger mold.  Looking at other minimalist options lead me to Barefoot Jason’s review of the Merrell Trail Gloves released in Feburary (http://barefootrunninguniversity.com/2011/01/04/merrell-trail-glove-review/  It should also be noted that Jason is working with Merrell on their barefoot resources – check out Merrell’s site.)

Excited about these shoes I ordered a pair as soon as they were available and received them yesterday.  Obviously it will take me some time to put on enough miles to truly review these shoes, but I thought I’d post the sizing portion of the review early since that seems to be a big question for those looking at these shoes.