Review- New Balance Fresh Foam 1080v6: A Softer, Smoother Premium Ride Comes to Fresh Foam

Review by Sam Winebaum

New Balance Fresh Foam 1080v6

The New Balance Fresh Foam 1080v6  sits at the top of New Balance's premium performance run line. It is a direct and very close "running" competitor to the Saucony Everun Triumph ISO 2 we recently reviewed here, so close we have difficulty telling them apart but there are differences. Read on.
I am calling the 1080 New Balance's refined and carefully considered response to the maximal trend set by Hoka.
I have have run all the prior Fresh Foam shoes: 980, 980 Trail, Boracay, and Zante (reviews for all here at my summary page). For the first time I found  a Fresh Foam shoe that has:

• a truly smooth and highly cushioned plush ride
• a fine upper, maybe a bit too comfortable and unstructured in the forefoot, but wider troublesome feet will be happy 
• more flexibility for sure than predecessors as there are flex grooves and cutouts in the sole
• a less harsh feel on the road than any of its Fresh Foam predecessors. 

"Always in Beta" is New Balance's slogan these days and the 1080 is a perfect example of this iterative approach in action. An incredibly well done shoe.

Highly Cushioned, Reasonably Light
The 1080 is highly cushioned with a 30mm heel/22mm forefoot 8mm drop according to Running Warehouse blog, so very close in stack to the Hoka Clifton 2's with its 29/24mm and almost identical to the Triumph ISO 2's  10.2oz weight and 31/22mm stack.
At a very reasonable 10.4oz/293g with an 8mm drop it is in the sweet spot of what I and many runners favor for an every day durable trainer. For those wanting a highly cushioned, more flexible, more conventional shoe with decent forefoot flexibility, likely long term durability and support it is a great option. Comments later in this review as to how a future version could potentially be lighter and even better.

New Balance Fresh Foam 1080v6

Midsole and Outsole
The midsole uses New Balance's Fresh Foam technology of a single slab of foam with convex hexagons on the medial inner sidewalls for a bit more support and firmness on contact and concave hexagons on the lateral side for a bit more deflection and cushion feel. When combined with the new outsole configuration the cushioning is plush but not mushy with no harsh stiff or awkward transitions in feel during the gait cycle beyond a bit of ponderous feel at slower speeds under the arch area.

Upper

,The 1080 fit me true to size. The upper is a very soft, beautiful engineered mesh upfront over the toes connecting to a tongue with a bootie of stretchy mesh running to the top lace tie hole. A thick, maybe too thick and thus heavy saddle of thick material wraps the midfoot. Does its thickness add unnecessary weight?   A very similar mid foot construction to the Triumph ISO 2 with its ISO Fit upper but in ISO the saddle is thinner material. Nonetheless, the foot is well held at mid foot but a bit hampered by thin stretchy laces. I had to do the lace lock to hold my heel as I like. The forefoot mesh while beautifully soft and stretchy doesn't hold my forefoot quite as securely as I would like or as well as the Triumph ISO 2 with its slightly more substantial less stretchy and maybe a bit narrower forefoot does. I think part of the reason for such as soft unstructured forefoot upper may be to improve flexility, the Boracay and 980 had stiff upper materials which I believe contributed to the overall stiffness of the shoe. This said runners with wider or trickier feet should be very happy with the fit of the 1080.

Outsole

Fresh Foam Boracay (left) New Balance 1080v6 (right)

The outsole uses a hexagon pattern as on the Fresh Foam Boracay (see above) and 980 but... the hexagons are spaced wider throughout on the 1080 and yes there are not only 2 flex grooves but cutouts to the midsole in the contact area between the 2 flex grooves.  The thick hard black plug at the rear puts longer lasting rubber in all the right places for good long term durability.  The flex is far better than the older models but still fairly stiff. There is not much flex back of the last flex groove. I found Boracay to be particularly stiff in the cold when the rubber hardens and the wider spacing of the lugs on the 1080 should help a lot. Big improvement in road feel but I wish the flex extended further back and those 2 flex grooves were even wider or deeper yet.

New Balance 1080v6 outsole

Ride and Comparisons
This is one plush and smooth ride. Similar cushioning to a Hoka Clifton at the heel and maybe a touch less at the forefoot but more flexible. The upper of the 1080 will fit a wider variety of feet than the Clifton's will. The flexibility is decent for such a thick shoe. Not exactly a fast shoe, it moves along at a stately smooth pace without any mushy or harsh feelings.

As stated at the very beginning of the review the ride is very similar to the Triumph ISO 2, so similar I had to take them out for multiple runs to attempt to describe the differences. I will try...

• Heel: the 1080 has a touch firmer and more stable heel. The Triumph ISO 2 heel with its TPU Everun gives at bit more bounce but is slightly less stable at slow speeds back on the heels. The upper heel hold in the Triumph with its low plush collar is slightly more secure. Still would give heel advantage to the 1080 over all
• Mid Foot: Very close to the same as the ISO Triumph but with more thickness of saddle material and maybe weight.
• Forefoot: Advantage Triumph ISO 2 for me. The somewhat more substantial upper material holds my narrower foot better, wider feet likely will prefer the 1080. The chevron outsole of the Triumph flexes better and further back than the 1080. A touch more ground feel with the Triumph.

Conclusions

New Balance is "Always in Beta" and they prove it with the 1080, They have improved their Fresh Foam concept significantly from what I can see adding some cushioning stack and improving the outsole geometry to make the shoe smoother running and more flexible than predecessor Fresh Foam shoes such as the Boracay and 980.  The 1080 is one of the best every day trainers I have run in this year. Well cushioned, reasonably light, decently flexible for its stack it is a good choice for long miles days, heavier neutral runners, and those needing a soft somewhat wide toe box. Not exactly a speedster or a tempo shoe but decently light it would be a good choice for hillier marathons. Highly recommended.

Score: 4.70 out of 5

-0.1 for somewhat loose heel hold and thin laces

-0.15 for lack of structure of forefoot upper and fairly stiff flex

-0.05 for price of $150. Yes many shoes are up there these days but a somewhat lower price would make the shoe more accessible.

Available now from New Balance. Other retailers soon. $150.

The Fresh Foam 1080 was provided free of charge to Road Trail Run. The opinions herein are entirely our own

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