Our NB Minimus line offers an invigorating, award-winning, closer-to-barefoot experience with a dramatically lower heel-to-midfoot drop than traditional running shoes. In March 2012, at running stores across the country, we will extend the much talked-about NB Minimus line with the arrival of NB Minimus Zero – new road, trail and wellness shoes that continue to deliver that minimal, light and right experience, but with a 0mm heel-to-midfoot drop. This is a feature that many of the most vocal members of the NewBalance.com community, many of them experienced natural runners, have asked about. We asked New Balance SBU Manager for Performance Running and Outdoor, Katherine Petrecca, who introduced us to NB Minimus the first time around, to help us get up to speed on what we can expect.
1. Minimal means many things.
“From the start, we envisioned creating a range of “minimal” within the collection in order to satisfy the interests and needs of a broad spectrum of runners. The response to our original 10 series product (4mm drop) has been terrific, but we know that there are many runners who are intensely interested in zero drop products. There are good reasons why a runner might prefer one style over the other – and we ultimately want to support them both and more.”
2. ‘Zero’ refers to more than just the size of the drop.
“We define our NB Minimus collection by 3 measures: weight, stack height and the heel-to-toe drop. Those are the levers that we can pull to create different levels of minimal product. In addition to the reduced drop, NB Minimus Zero products also feature lower stack heights and weights than the 10 series – 6.4 oz for NB Minimus Zero Road and 4.4 oz for NB Minimus Zero Trail.”
3. Zero wouldn’t have been possible without the first round of NB Minimus product.
“We definitely learned a lot in the process of making the first NB Minimus product. I don’t think we’ve ever done more prototype rounds on a shoe than the MT10!”
4. We’ve had too many ideas to fit into just one model.
“We had some ideas for the 10 series that we weren’t able to execute at the time. You’ll begin to see those on the NB Minimus Zero product. One example is the coring of the midsole on the Zero that greatly reduces weight and provides amazing flexibility. In fact, we had an idea for the original product that we are still working on for the third evolution of NB Minimus in 2013.”
Sole detail, NB Minimus Zero Trail
5. These shoes are going to make you work for it.
“The NB Minimus Zero series product is for runners who are looking to go even more minimal – more ground feel, more independent foot movement, less weight. The Trail Zero is particularly minimal. It will really force the runner to pay attention to how they are running because the shoe won’t be doing any of the work for them.”
6. You’re going to want to come prepared.
“We would recommend the NB Minimus Zeros to runners who are already experienced with minimal trainers. NB Minimus Zero would be a big departure for people who are running in traditional shoes – even more so than our current line. The zero drop is only part of the minimal equation that runners should note. We have significantly reduced the amount of foam and rubber underfoot.”
7. Zero drop is going to be an adjustment for a lot of people.
“Transition times vary per person, but it’s important that even experienced minimal runners make transitions cautiously. Incorporate more minimal products slowly into your running schedule and be hyper-aware of what you are feeling in your feet, ankles and calves. We also highly recommend employing Good Form Running techniques while using minimal shoes.”
8. NB Minimus is inspiring updates in other running shoes.
“In general, we’ve found that runners are increasingly interested in more neutral platforms. We have taken this thinking into other areas of our running product line and have expanded our use of non-traditional off-sets. In Spring 2012, we’ll launch 2 key performance updates that will move from a 12mm to an 8mm drop.”
9. And even in some places that don’t have anything to do with running.
“You’ll definitely see that influence in other products…you’ve already seen it with NB Minimus Life and NB Minimus Training.”
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NB Minimus is a barefoot-inspired line of shoes created specifically for runners seeking a truly minimalist experience. It’s a cross-category collection, including road running, trail running, and wellness shoes. By ‘wellness’ we mean shoes designed for people seeking a more natural stance throughout the day, even when they’re not exercising.
MT10/WT10: An entirely different approach to trail running, the MT10 Minimus Trail takes the proven versatile durability of a Vibram® outsole and combines it with a fitted, minimalist upper that’s comfortable with or without socks.
MR10/WR10: Minimus is a whole new approach to athletic footwear, inspired by Good Form Running and designed to be worn with or without socks. The Minimus Road running shoe is engineered for use on pavement and other varied running surfaces. Supremely comfortable and extremely lightweight, the MR10 is taking the running world by storm.
MW10/WW10: Minimus is a whole new approach to athletic footwear, inspired by Good Form Running and designed to be worn with or without socks. The MW10 Minimus Wellness shoe is sublimely comfortable, engineered for recovery use as well as for other casual wear.
Katherine Petrecca: NB Minimus is a barefoot-inspired line of shoes created specifically for runners seeking a truly minimalist experience. It’s a cross-category collection, including road running, trail running, and wellness shoes. By ‘wellness’ we mean shoes designed for people seeking a more natural stance throughout the day, even when they’re not exercising.
In setting out to create a line of shoes that would provide the ultimate minimalist experience, we worked against a clearly-defined set of criteria:
Drop is the difference between heel height and toe height. All NB Minimus shoes have a 4mm drop which provides a more natural foot position than traditional shoes.
The wider forefoot in NB Minimus allows your foot to expand naturally on impact.
To minimize distance from foot to ground, NB Minimus has no insert, minimal midsoles & outsoles, and is engineered to encourage a midfoot strike.
Because NB Minimus contains only what is necessary, it’s almost 50% lighter than traditional lightweight shoes.
Inside the New Balance Sports lab and the search for the ideal heel-to-midfoot drop
Anton Krupicka running on a Sports Research Lab treadmill: TenBroek: “We set up to capture motion capture data on his gait. Kyle Skaggs is awaiting his turn in the background also. We can capture how these guys move in a typical product and then see how they move in something like the NB Minimus.”
Trampas TenBroek spends his days contemplating, and calculating, the implications of millimeters. Here, in the New Balance Sports Research Lab, where a team with backgrounds in mechanical engineering, anatomy, biomechanics and physics is gleaning new sets of insights about the way in which we run, small measurements have enormous implications. In the development of NB Minimus, for which the 4mm heel-to-midfoot drop has been a source of significant discussion both inside and outside of New Balance, the work of the Sports Research Lab has been a study in both the way our bodies behave, and the ways in which our shoes change that behavior.
As it turns out, these millimeters have a profound impact on the way in which we think about designing a shoe.
“The shoe industry and biomechanics community have believed for years that large loading rates (the measure of the speed and force with which a runner strikes the ground) are detrimental to the body,” says TenBroek. “This is why we put a lot of cushioned foam in most trainers. This foam reduces the loading rates at impact compared to landing the same way with less-cushioned materials.”
The recent interest in minimalist running — and a critical part of the development of NB Minimus — is connected to the increase in discussion about the virtues of midfoot striking. This technique represents a significant change in the way many runners, accustomed to striking on the heavily-cushioned heel, approach their form. The Sports Research Lab team viewed the use of NB Minimus as working hand-in-hand with an ongoing transition to midfoot striking — a process that was part product design and part form.
“We also know changing other things about the way your run can reduce these loading rates, such as taking smaller steps and utilizing other joints,” said TenBroek. “It turns out that running on the midfoot encourages this approach. Therefore you can get away with less material underfoot, if you change some things about the way you run.”
The foundation for these conclusions lies in the lab itself — a collection of gear (and gearheads) on the lower levels of New Balance’s design offices in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Here, the team puts a range of runners through their paces, on a treadmill surrounded by high-speed cameras capturing every muscle twitch and turn, over a glass force plate implanted with piezoelectric crystals that capture the minute directional forces in a runner’s strike. The Sports Research Lab team understands the ways in which we all run, in far more precise terms than most of us do.
“The problem is that it is difficult for most to change the way they run a great deal. With this in mind, we wanted to make sure we had enough material under the heel for most of these people. This helped drive how thick the heel of the NB Minimus would be.”
The mechanics of midfoot striking have implications for product development, though, that extend beyond simply reducing the material under the heel, and lowering the profile of the shoe.
“Reducing underfoot material almost always requires the body to change the way it runs — likely moving towards a midfoot strike and shorter steps” says TenBroek.
The work of the Sports Research Lab team becomes far more difficult to quantify and measure when it comes to understanding what runners feel — and turning that feedback into insights that drive the development of a shoe like NB Minimus. The team tested extensively each iteration of the NB Minimus prototypes — from recreational runners to elite ultramarathoners like Tony Krupicka and Kyle Skaggs, whose insights and ideas had driven much of the initial thinking behind the shoes.
“The design input that I’ve had in the [NB] Minimus and the 101 is really an outgrowth of the modifications I’ve made to my shoes in the past — especially in [NB] Minimus where it’s down to a 4mm drop between the heel and forefoot. It’s really close to a shoe that I’m 100% comfortable in and don’t need to do any modifications to. That’s super exciting — to go from shoes that I feel the need to carve up to ‘BOOM’: just being able to take a shoe that I helped design out of the box, put it on my foot and go running.”
“Through our wear testing and the people we had in the lab running in the product we created with varying drops and midsole thicknesses, we learned that going from a 10-12mm drop, which the vast majority of trainers are, to nothing or very little drop can lead to some pretty significant soreness. That isn’t to say that “some” soreness isn’t normal and likely not damaging for most; however, there is a point where soreness is not good soreness or harmless soreness and it is often difficult for people to know the difference” says TenBroek. “Runners did eventually acclimate to the changes in drop but more drop takes longer to acclimate to. The 4mm drop yielded the preferred ride of the heights that were tested.”
While the 4mm drop represents the ideal specification for runners making the transition to a closer-to-barefoot experience, the work of the Sports Research Lab on NB Minimus is far from complete. New Balance is continually gathering feedback, both inside and outside of the lab, which will shape the next round of NB Minimus shoes.
Glossary
Drop: ‘Drop’ is the difference between heel height and toe height. All NB Minimus shoes have a 4mm drop which provides a more neutral foot position than traditional shoes (which average a 12mm drop).
What loading rates look like: The data from the in-shoe pressure system used in the New Balance Sports Research Lab can be converted to three dimensional animations of the runner’s strike, illustrating the impact on the runner’s foot through the stride.
The force plate: A glass plate mounted on a concrete and steel structure and made with piezoelectric crystals, measures a runner’s force in three directions: left-to-right, forward-to-back, and vertically.
While much of the development of New Balance’s forthcoming NB Minimus footwear line took place inside the Lawrence, Mass., labs, many of the insights that informed the design were gleaned some 1,800 miles to the west, in the hills outside of Boulder, Colo. NewBalance.com talked with Senior Designer Chris Wawrousek and Team New Balance ultramarathoner Anton Krupicka, who helped test and develop NB Minimus, about how the pursuit of the ideal minimalist shoe was driven by perpetual prototyping.
Anton Krupicka explains the philosophy behind the development of NB Minimus.
The NB Minimus Hack
Tony made a number of “modifications” to his NB790s, starting with significant trimming of the midsole to deliver a near-minimal drop from heel to midfoot. He trimmed just over ½” off the tongue and cut a notch in the rear of the upper for his Achilles tendon “because sometimes it gets really dry and cracked, and the shoe can rub there.”
The MT100 incorporated much of Tony’s feedback, so his “customization” was limited to the trimming of the midsole – a modification informed by the neutral foot position at the heart of the inspiration for NB Minimus.
Chris Wawrousek: “Obviously, we’re super excited about NB Minimus as a design group. [New Balance Product Manager] Bryan Gothie had this funny story about how he met Tony [Anton] and Kyle [Skaggs, also of Team New Balance] at a running shop. When Bryan came back, he started talking about these guys and the great things that they were doing. We all got super excited to have the opportunity to create product for such elite caliber athletes with direct input from them.
This is sort of a great inspiration point for us to jump off and really try to address some of the things that we were doing in trail running. Tony and Kyle represented a different breed of ultrarunning. We had done some ultramarathon research three or four years prior to working with these guys, and the shoes that they were driving towards were these really heavy, big shoes, and the guys that were doing it were grueling along – not at all what you think of when you think about the typical marathon runner. Then guys like Tony and Kyle came to the sport and brought this actual racing mentality with them, so to get to work with them was really pretty exciting.”
Tony Krupicka: “For me, I was with a different shoe company before New Balance, and I’ve always been a huge shoe dork, really into the design. As a runner, it’s the one piece of gear that really matters the most. So when I met Bryan in Colorado Springs, he was genuinely interested in what Kyle and I had to say about the shoes that he had with him.
Once I signed a contract, he started sending boxes, and Kyle and I were just beating up these shoes. Bryan would ask us “What do you guys think?”, and we told him what we thought and, for the first time for me, these guys were actually listening to us and cared about what we thought. So right from the beginning, I had this sense that if I told them something, they would genuinely consider it, rather than just saying “OK” and doing whatever they wanted. So it’s been great, and I’ve really enjoyed working with them.”
NewBalance.com: So, what was the point at which Tony’s input began to shape the product development of the MT100 and later NB Minimus?
CW: “Well, the 100 started out as this shoe that we wanted to make specifically for Tony and Kyle and really aim it at racing. As so often happens, in the broader market it was almost too early for us to come out with something quite so extreme. As a designer, it was disappointing, because the feedback we were getting from Tony and Kyle was very specific – things like the drop in the last. But these were things that the broader consumer base wasn’t really ready for.
Then all of a sudden, you had Born to Run [Christopher McDougall’s best-selling book about long-distance running], which created this whole new energy around this idea that we weren’t really meant to run on wedges. Which is what we had heard from Tony and Kyle before but weren’t ready to leverage yet. So, a lot of what we had talked about with Tony and Kyle and the origins of the 100 – the 100 itself didn’t really live up to all of those ideas, but when we were able to free ourselves up and do NB Minimus, a lot of the seeds had been planted with the 100.”
NB.com: Tony, we’ve talked before about some of the “customization” you did to the 100s you were running in. How much did that influence the development of NB Minimus?
TK: “Well, the 100 was the first shoe that I had a lot of input on, and I had been learning a lot about shoe design and construction along the way. There were things I wasn’t happy with, like the way that the upper integrated with the platform on the 100, so I ended up trying to fix that by, basically, trimming down the platform. That was really my motivation for the carving I was doing on the 100s, and even the 790s. Basically just going for that flatter drop between the heel and the forefoot. Like Chris said, we were really just a year or two early with the 100 in terms of being able to reach the consumer – not everyone was excited yet about having a really flat, flexible shoe.
NB Minimus, though, is really a whole different shoe line than the 100 series, which is nice because it really allows you to get kind of radical, as opposed to sticking with conventional shoe designs. ”
CW: “Certainly the conversation – from where we were with the 100 to when we started the NB Minimus – the range of what was acceptable footwear just became so much broader. Years ago, we would talk about things like “Can we move that heel crashpad 2mm forward, or is that going to impact the medial rollover too much?” Now, the scope of the conversations you can have about shoes has totally changed to this really open, really fun area to work in.”
NB.com: So, is this an iterative process in which Tony gets a new pair of shoes and gives feedback, and Chris’ team takes that feedback and makes adjustments? How does the actual collaborative process work?
TK: “I got some pretty early prototypes of the NB Minimus, and all they were was this rudimentary sole with the upper from the 100 so that I could run in them. Actually, even before that I got what was really just the last. Really, it was more like a slipper. That was super early in the process. We hadn’t even really been thinking about the shoe yet, we just had a last. From there, they sent me some CAD drawings, and I would comment on them and send them back. So from my end, it’s been pretty integrated between us from the start.”
CW: “Sometimes in my mind, it’s hard to separate out what NB Minimus is today from this whole field of research that we’ve been doing for a number of years, since our Advanced Concepts team identified natural running as a focal point. Those early prototypes were really a test bed for understanding What does it mean if you change the heel to toe drop from 6mm to 3mm to 0mm, and how does that change people’s running?”
The Evolution of NB Minimus
First attempt at natural running last
Prototype used to evaluate effect of heel lift on running performance (8mm heel lift)
Prototype used to evaluate effect of heel lift on running performance (4mm heel lift)
Prototype used to evaluate effect of heel lift on running performance (0mm heel lift)
Second evolution of natural running last
Advanced Concept team’s first molded natural running soleunit
Third evolution of natural running last
Origin of the MT10 – stretch fit upper evaluation
First prototype soleunit of the MT10 with the MT100 upper
First upper prototype of the MR10
First prototype of the MT10 with stretch fit upper
Pull over of the MT10 with cord closure
Pullover of the MT10 with lace closure
Upper pattern corrections to the MT10 – elimination of the stretch fit
Cross section of the MT10 used to validate internal heights
Final pullover of the MT10 – full commitment to the lace closure
Second prototype of the MT10
Prototype used to evaluate effect of heel lift on running performance (4mm heel lift)
NB.com: To what extent, Tony, did you have to learn to speak a designer’s language to play a more substantial role in the product development process?
TK: “Well, I’ve learned about durometers and upper materials and that sort of thing, but I really just tell the designers what I’d like to see and how I would like it to feel on my foot and perform. Through osmosis you end up learning what these terms are. ”
CW: “Tony talks really well about shoes. It’s pretty clear what he’s after.”
NB.com: Is the feedback you’re giving, Tony, geared toward making a better shoe for racing, for training or just for running?
TK: “For me, it’s typically a racing shoe. I end up, for the most part, training and racing in the same shoe. That’s changed somewhat with NB Minimus – and this is really tied to my philosophy on the barefoot running movement – because for me it’s not so much about an all-or-nothing approach. If I train on a daily basis in a shoe like NB Minimus, which is super-flexible and really low to the ground, then that allows me to race in a shoe that’s really light as well. For my purposes, on the terrain I cover, NB Minimus might not be quite protective enough. Training in them on a daily basis allows me to race in a shoe that’s much lighter than I might otherwise.
The line itself is sort of split: The 100 is kind of a racing shoe that I’ll use for long runs, and the NB Minimus is something I’ll use more as a training tool. Over the last few months, I’ve begun to gear my feedback to the two shoes with that in mind. ”
Glossary
After our conversation, we asked Chris about a few of the terms that were tossed around. Here’s what he came back with.
Last
“The foundation. It influences everything on a final shoe, yet can be hard to understand, even to a veteran of the footwear industry. Last work is a strange blend of art and science, like alchemy or something.”
Heel crashpad
“Engineered area to coincide with a user’s first point of contact between the shoe and the ground. Usually on the heel, but in the case of NB Minimus we are hoping to move that point of contact farther forward. It’s most obvious on the MR10. The slightly radiused area of rubber towards the forefoot of the outside of the shoe is kind of a ‘crash pad.’ Tony’s old shoes greatly influenced this decision, though he and our team still debate whether it’s better for him or not.”
Durometer
“Often used broadly to describe various properties about the midsole and outsole. Generally speaking, it’s what people are referring to when they say a shoe is ‘hard’ or ‘soft,’ and technically they are correct — durometer is a measure of hardness. In reality though, ‘hard’ or ‘soft’ comes from combination of factors that also includes compound (the chemical makeup of the components), specific gravity of the material, geometry, upper construction and assembly method.”
Detail, NB Minimus Zero Trail
Sole detail, NB Minimus Zero Trail
Anton Krupicka running on a Sports Research Lab treadmill: TenBroek: “We set up to capture motion capture data on his gait. Kyle Skaggs is awaiting his turn in the background also. We can capture how these guys move in a typical product and then see how they move in something like the NB Minimus.”
Drop: ‘Drop’ is the difference between heel height and toe height. All NB Minimus shoes have a 4mm drop which provides a more neutral foot position than traditional shoes (which average a 12mm drop).
What loading rates look like: The data from the in-shoe pressure system used in the New Balance Sports Research Lab can be converted to three dimensional animations of the runner’s strike, illustrating the impact on the runner’s foot through the stride.
The force plate: A glass plate mounted on a concrete and steel structure and made with piezoelectric crystals, measures a runner’s force in three directions: left-to-right, forward-to-back, and vertically.
TriCity New Balance 