MT10v2 Minimus Trail Running Shoe

I absolutely love mine. I like that they have a small drop and a bit of stack height (not too plush, but not too firm). They're good if you want a relief from full barefoot, but they're still super flexible. I have the suede and they fit like a glove and are beautiful. My feet are narrow, so I'm not the arbiter of width, but I'm happy about the toe box.

I always loved the MT10 when I was first starting barefoot running. I didn't know they are still made!

I have these, and for me, they're perfect. They have like a 4mm drop from heel to toe so they're not technically barefoot as many of the barefoot purists on here will point out 😅. I have tried Vivobarefoot and inov8 which are both foot shaped, and the New Balances are definitely the widest. They appear less wide as they have a narrow heel and an athletic fit, but for me that's perfect as I am quite slender. I've found other barefoot shoes to just be wide the whole way and too wide around the ankle, but these are actually foot shaped. I went half a size up, and they're probs half a size too big, but idm the extra room in the toe box to account for the quite sharp pinky toe area round off. They also have very flexible vibram soles that easily can be folded in half.

These are basically the perfect shoe for me. I’ve also tried the Merrell Trail Glove 7 and the Vivobarefoot Gobi. The Merrell wasn’t barefoot or wide enough, and the Vivobarefoot was too barefoot with its 3 mm soles. Style-wise, I really like them, I struggled for ages to find anything that fit my taste. I think American and UK styles are quite different 😅. There are some nice barefoot shoes out there, but most are around £150. I get that independent brands need to charge more, but that price point isn’t realistic for everyone. These originally retail at £100 and can be picked up for about £60 on sale, which feels reasonable. I’ve seen people say they aren’t very wide, but out of the three I’ve tried they’re by far the widest (I know it's quite a narrow selection). I think the confusion comes because they’re narrow at the heel and wide in the toe box, which is exactly what I'm after. The Vibram soles are extremely flexible and can easily be folded in half. They do have a bit of toe spring which I would prefer otherwise, but it's not noticeable when walking.

Fair enough, I see what you mean. I think thats my natural foot shape anyway, so it works for me. I've never had more room in the toe box. The suede upper is very flexible also so I would imagine it would stretch a bit. I did go half a size up as I've heard new balance run small. 🤷

Yeah definitely. My toe splay isn't the best, especially my pinky. So I imagine the sharp curve would be a problem if my pinky splayed more. I can't use regular shoes either, my pinky and big toe would always be rubbing on the sides, it feels crazy to wear those kind of shoes now. I've been using anatomically shaped shoes for 2 years+ now. I have tried Vivo, and those were much more narrow than the new balances, but I understand vivo is narrow for barefoot shoes.

I also have quite slender feet and ankles so find a lot of barefoot shoes to be a good width at the toe box but loose at the ankle. Definitely, I'm sure I'll have to progress to wider ones in the future. Hopefully they're more affordable when the time comes 😅

That's a bit too thick for me. I had a pair of inov8 shoes which were anatomically shaped but had 22mm soles and it felt really unnatural to walk in them. These ones are perfect as they're about 10mm sole and really flexible, feels much more natural walking in them 👌

Are you sure this isn’t a case of 'Don't blame the Ferrari cause your ass can't drive'? If you have been doing road running and just switched back to trails and are trying to do the same distance and intensity, that's a recipe for a rolled ankle. Your stabilizer muscles aren't used to that workload anymore, you need to ease into it, give them time to build back up. The heel stack may not be the issue. Buy if you don't want a higher stack shoe, their are plenty of other options. Merrell Trail Glove, Xero Scrambler, New Balance Mt10, ect. For slightly less minimal, Topo Pursuit and La Sportiva Prodigio provide lots of trail feel.

New Balance MT10 are absolutely great 

I just get these in Japan (brown). They're surprisingly good, but they're not 100% barefoot. There's a tiny amount of support - an amount of support where if you've worn true barefoot shoes, you'll notice it, but if you're used to shoes with support, it might as well not even be there. Toebox could also be a bit wider, but it works well enough for me. I've tried real barefoot shoes that had smaller toebox tbh They're super comfortable and ultra light, and they're better than most other shoes, so I'm happy. I won't be using them for a while, as it's snowing in my country lol