Customer Reviews New Balance 608v5

fit well for wider feet! Great product!

We tried 3 pairs of athletic shoes for hubby. He wears a 9 ½ Wide. He kept the other New Balance and a saucony but this one is going back. He says it was not nearly as comfortable and did not feel like a wide.

I have been wearing the 608v4 for years. The new v5 are a HUGE disappointment. First, they look to be almost entirely low grade vinyl uppers as opposed to real leather I depend on for durability. If you wear out and replace your shoes every six months like I do, then to be fair, it may not matter much in the end... however, it might. For me, if I wanted cheap plastic shoes, I would buy Walmart shoes. Second, the v4 had a soft sole that felt like walking on, well like running/walking on foam. The new v5 sole is hard and does not absorb ANY impact that I could define. This may be an improvement in certain applications, however, I cannot imagine what they might be. To make matters worse, they have redesigned the insert, which no longer provides any support at all, including in the arches. So right off the batt, plan on adding an after market insert. Lastly, what killed this shoe for me, is that they have made the shoe at least 3/8" more narrow than the V4 as measured at the hinge/ball of the foot. See pics. (The first pic shows I have aligned the opposite edge as closely as possible, while the second pic shows the old sole extending out past the new sole as described.) This equates to a "4E" which my feet require, and I ordered, to actually only be approximately 2E in width. What makes this so very horrible, is that the design of the shoe forces my feet inward, which means that I am walking on the inside edge of the sole ALL of the time, and my foot is hanging over that 3/8" they removed from the width. AND since they do not provide this shoe in a 6E, the actual reality is that I can no longer wear my favorite shoe.