New Balance Minimus X20V3

Very little gets me more excited than deliveries of new sneakers

especially when said sneakers are brightly coloured!

A few weeks ago the super nice people at New Balance sent me a pair of their Minimus X20V3 (now that’s a mouthful!) sneakers from the spring 2014 line.

The Minimus 20v3 offers a truly barefoot experience in a shoe that provides protection and versatility.  Perfect for CrossFit and strength training workouts, the x20v3 provides the athlete a low profile, stable platform to execute lifts and movements in the gym, yet enough flexibility to take them for a middle distance run

So here’s the thing, last year another company sent me a pair of their sneakers that were a minimalist shoe.  I wear those as my casual sneakers because when I tried wearing them to teach classes I hate them.  They felt hard and like they wasn’t enough support so I was interested to see how I’d feel about these in comparison.  The first thing I noticed is on the tag these had “vibram” on them, which told me these sneakers had Vibram® outsoles which provide maximum surface contact and multi-directional traction so right away I had high hopes that I would like these.

I thought that perhaps I would like them for teaching strength based classes, but that they wouldn’t provide me with enough cushion for high impact classes like Zumba (I usually like some extra cushion when I’m doing a lot of jumping).  The first night I got them I taught Zumba Toning, and loved them.  The next day I wore them to teach another Zumba Toning class and then tried them for regular Zumba, and much to my surprise I really liked them there too! They didn’t feel hard like the pair I had tried teaching in, in the past, they had great lateral support (something I really need for all that side to side movement) and were really light and comfortable.

Over the past 3 weeks I’ve had them, I’ve taught all of my classes (except yoga, and aquafit) wearing the Minimus X20V3’s and the more I wear them, the more I like them.  I really was surprised, I had expected to like them for some of my classes, but not all of them. I feel like these, while still being a clear minimalist shoe still have good arch support (at least I find that they do). I personally wouldn’t wear them to run any long distance in as I know I need lots of cushion for distance running thanks to my fibromyalgia, but for a cross training sneaker I’m a believer!

New Balance kindly sent me these free of charge, but I can honestly say that had I purchased them myself, I would be happy with my purchase and wouldn’t have returned them.  They might not have been the first pair I would have gravitated towards when looking for new sneakers, but that is one of the perks of being a blogger – sometimes you get to try new things that you wouldn’t have tried otherwise and end up really liking them!

Of course it doesn’t hurt that they are super pretty, a few people have commented to me that they look like easter egg shoes – and if you know me you know that, that made my day 😉

The New Balance Minimus X20V3 come in 3 other colour schemes if you’re not as into the bright look as I am 😉

And are available in Canada at Sport Chek locations.  The Minimus X20V3’s retail for $119.95.

Disclosure: I received my Minimus X20V3’s in exchange for my honest review.  All thoughts, opinions and adoration for bright things is 100% my own.