NEWTON RUNNING SHOES

Is it me, or is $175 a tad extreme? It's not like you can walk into any shoe store and tty them on. Also, all their "athletes" are pro tri-guys/gals, and since we know that tri-geeks have an endless supply of disposable income, it's all starting to make sense...

and replace them every 300-400 miles?? Sure I'll get a pair every month, lets see that is $2100 a year for shoes.

you should see them in payless in about 3 months.

interesting...

its about time someone made a shoe for forefoot strikers.

also, look for New Balance to have a forefoot strikers shoe out in Fall 08- Spring 09

its about time someone made a shoe for forefoot strikers

Yeah, pity there's no others on the market. I'm still scratching my head wondering why every pair of running shoes under $155 has that big hole running from arch to toes, ala the Flintstonesmobile. You'd think they could continue the sole all the way to the front, maybe even shoot a little goo or air or springs or Substance-D or whatever in there.

they have a very strong association with the multisports.com group of triathlete through Paula Newby Fraser's connections with the founder of Newton...the price is very outrageous, but there are quite a few posters on the triathlon forum who have already bought one or two pairs.

I have to say these shoes look great but the pricing is a bit extreme. If you are a serious runner and running any decent mileage you are going to blow through these in a month or less.

Do they think people can afford this price point? The price of the trainer is more than double the price of most trainers out there. I think they are going to have a hard time tapping into the serious runner market with these price points. Yeah your rice weekend warrior might buy them to be the cool kid on the block or the rich tri guy but the average joe won't be able to afford these.

Bulldog wrote:

they have a very strong association with the multisports.com group of triathlete through Paula Newby Fraser's connections with the founder of Newton...the price is very outrageous, but there are quite a few posters on the triathlon forum who have already bought one or two pairs.

And since the shoes shipped all of two days ago, has anyone had anything, good or bad, to say about them?

ok db

well lets look at the asics kinsei which retails at $165. they spent millions of dollars and over 5yrs producing a shoe for the fat asses to pound the ground.

obviously you can forefoot stike in any shoe. however i do not see why EVERYSHOE on the market has to be designed for HEEL STRIKERS?!! they put a ridiculous about of time, money, R&D into making the heel strike easier. eventhough anyone who knows anything about biomechanics understands that heel striking is a gross mistake. i would rather spend $175 on a shoe designed for my biomechanics by a company dedicated to RUNNING than the PRE piggy backing Nike's of the world.

what im am saying is that its about time someone starting making a shoe for the efficient forefoot runners out there instead of the hippos who take up running these days.

They look interesting but after reading through their website I still don't understand how the shoes make one want to land on their forefoot. It isn't really explained well, they just say, "Newton Running shoes were developed to make your feet think they're barefoot and increase your performance." I suppose you'd have to try them on to understand.

My impression though is that they look gimicky and are trying to jump on the barefoot running band wagon and still make a profit by selling $175 dollar shoes.

Also, for a forefoot striking shoe, it looks like they put an aweful lot of cushioning in the heel...

Agreed I like the fact that it is a new company trying to cater to serious athletes. However the price is still an issue considering most serious runners are on a budget! Again 175 is a lot and from the looks of their website they are gearing all the marketing to triathletes. They have had several write-ups in tri magazines and all their sponsored athletes are triathletes. Big names too but not one top runner on the list!

shoe fetish wrote: i would rather spend $175 on a shoe designed for my biomechanics by a company dedicated to RUNNING than the PRE piggy backing Nike's of the world.

You can get a couple pair of most Brooks models for that price. Do they qualify as "a company dedicated to RUNNING"?

Hey, buy whatever you want. I'm not fast but have fairly efficient mid/forefoot mechanics, and have done just fine with a variety of shoes from most of the running shoes manufacturers (those lately I seem to have gravitated to mostly Nike and Fila models). If you really need to pay two to five times what I do to get a pair of shoes which doesn't eff up your running, well, I'm sorry to hear that. Hopefully you run low enough mileage that they last a while.

Guess your experience is different, but in mine, having decent form means I just want a shoe to get out of my way, not so much do anything extra-special to support my biomechanics.

Woohoo Assasins!

Caveat Emptor indeed.

if you knew anything about the overall running population you would realize that 80-90% of people heel strike whether its joe jogger with an 80 minute 10k pr or your local hero who runs 30 minutes. there are exceptions but it is a rather small amount of the population. so if you were a shoe company why would you want to make a shoe that will not sell because it does not work for a MAJORITY of the running population? despite a company's claims that they have the runners interests at heart, when it comes down to it they still have to be able to sell product. since an overwhelming majority of the market heel strikes they cater to them.......pretty simple.

people seem to like them, and anecdotally they run faster. people have been "beta" testing for quite a while now

I read an article the featured the designer of the shoe he spent about 12 years working on the Newton shoe, yes the shoe is over priced. The shoe is built similar to a racing flat which to me means that it will not last to long but quiet a few people on this board post that they run 1000+ miles in racing flats.

They are marketing this shoe to the Tri athletes because there thoughts are that tri athletes are on the cutting edge of technology and are willing to experiment with new equipment. Like many people have said tri athletes are will and able to spend a lot of money to try and buy a better performance and they understand that.

For all the people who want shoes made for the real runner that percentage of the running population is so small it would not be able to support it self which is why you don’t see many shoes made for the non heel striker and that is partially due to the fact that the quote real runners are generally cheap and buy there shoes online or in a big box store once they are on closeout.

Also did any one watch the video of the person who runs in a regular shoe vs. the Newton shoe?

where was the video?

I wanted to hate them b/c I hate all that tri-crap that people buy, but they are actually pretty decent shoes.

That being said, there isn't much to them. The are just really minimal trainers with the "energy return" finger-like things on the forefoot.

Your calves will get a little sore after the first few runs, but the finger-like things retreat into the forefoot enough to keep it from doing too much.

I will be honest though, not that I really care, but for 175 bucks, they could have put a little more thought into the way the shoe looks.

It really looks like something generic from payless or walmart.

newton sent our shop an email asking if we'd be interested in carrying their stuff. wouldn't try it. hell, it's about as expensive as the kensei. new kensei=$185! ripoff!