jordenf v2.0

I love New Balance runners.  I currently run on the New Balance 769 shoe and I’ve always said that if Jesus didn’t fly everywhere he would run in these shoes.  My snowboard boots (made by Burton) on the other hand (or foot I guess) make my feet feel as if Godzilla blew fire on my toes and then Mothra hit my heels with one of her poison darts.  Soooo you can imagine the party I threw when I heard that New Balance’s snowboard clothing line 686 decided to come out with a limited edition snowboard boot called the Times NB 580 based after their already popular MT580 sneaker.

The Times NB 580 comes in black or white and look like they couldn’t get more comfortable unless they were lined with baby seal pelts.  Here are some specs on the boots from New Balance’s 686 website:

Based upon the original MT580 sneaker, the 686 design team recreated a fully functional, technically advanced snowboard boot with a sneaker-like fit. The intense process utilized New Balance’s proprietary features like Rollbar and Abzorb, as well as combining BOA’s proven Focus lacing system. The end result is a true masterpiece of New Balance’s quality footwear heritage and 686’s technical snowboarding history.

Basically that’s a lot of fancy language for “they feel awesome and have a lot of cool stuff inside them”.  I also noticed that they have these neat dials on the tongue and on the side of the boot… maybe they are volume knobs to turn up the good and turn down the suck?  I think it might have something to do with the BOA Focus lacing system where you don’t actually lace up anything but rather tighten by twisting the dials… so even an idiot or someone with only one hand can tie them up tightly now!

Snowboard season is already underway so I probably wont try to pick these up until it winds down in April as the $300US price tag is a little high for me.   I’m hoping it will drop a bit after the initial launch.  Looks like another season of wearing my Burton Godzilla/Mothra hybrid boots for now.

Cheers!

jordenf