Plenty of upper which brings the heat
Alex:
The upper of the New Balance Fresh Foam X 1080 v13 screams plushness. Everything about it is soft, well padded, and in certain areas even too padded. Looking at the upper material, it is an engineered mesh that is actually quite thick and not super breathable. For instance I ran with this shoe in Hawaii and I could definitely feel that my feet weren’t breathing as much as they should or as much as they could in other shoes. So definitely a shoe that will serve better purposes in winter and that may overheat the feet in summer.
The tongue is semi gusseted and again it is well padded, it removes any lace pressure. The laces are an average length. You have enough length to do a runners knot but this is definitely not needed given the lockdown that this shoe is providing.
The heel, again, is super well padded around the collar. The heel counter is very stout and rigid. I would call it an average width heel cup. Same for the midfoot and forefoot I would call them average width. Do note however that this shoe will come in wide and extra wide fittings, meaning E and EE. So if you have wide feet, this is an option that you can consider. The insole is nothing special. It’s foamy, quite flimsy and doesn’t provide any extra support. It does add a bit of comfort to the Fresh Foam X midsole but that’s pretty much it.
How does it fit?
In terms of fit, this shoe is true to size. There’s nothing to complain about the length of the shoe nor about the width of the shoe. I would however say that for being true to size, it is rather on the snug side of things. You may want to go half a size up if you’d like to have a bit more length in your shoe and maybe a bit more volume too.The plushness and amount of padding in the shoe leads to a feeling of compression on top of your feet. Not unpleasant. But if you want to benefit from a bit more volume, then I would recommend that extra half size.
Tim:
I’ve worn quite a few NB models in the past few years and this is the most padded and comfy NB I’ve tried. As Alex mentioned, there is a lot of padding everywhere, from the heel to the tongue to the forefoot. You just need to put on the NB Fresh Foam X 1080 v13 to instantly understand that the main goal here was not to save weight but more to build a comfortable shoe. For the purpose of the shoe, and we will come to this later, I found the upper fits perfectly.
Laces work well for me and like Alex I didn’t need to tie a runner’s knot to ensure a good lockdown. Talking about the fit, for me it’s an honest TTS! I would not recommend going ½ down and increasing the width if you have very wide feet (going for the E or EE version). The standard width should nevertheless fit most people’s feet.
Finally, I 100% agree with Alex about the breathability of the upper. This would be perfect for autumn and winter but as soon as the temperature rises, I expect to experience some overheating as the upper material is really thick.