We have seen this trend now: since a couple of years, most brands started shying away from the usual neutral > support > motion control way of classifying their running shoes. We have seen this with Nike and Brooks.

New Balance is also moving in that direction, splitting their collection in 3 big buckets:

Fresh Foam Collection: Focus on a soft and smooth ride FuelCell Collection: Focus on lightweight and responsiveness, for speed NBx Collection: Focus on high mileage

Let’s now look at the shoes in each bucket, what technologies they adopt and let’s try and make sense on who should be wearing what.