New Balance SC Elite v4
This was my first time interacting with New Balance premiere racing shoe and I’ve got to say that I’m impressed. I’ve been a fan of the SC Trainer for years and while I haven’t seen what the transition is from SC Trainer to Elite in year’s past, in this years version, it feels effortless to move between the two shoes.
I will only be reviewing this shoe for running, not gym or daily living as it is designed specifically for racing and speed work.
The Breakdown
Men: 8.4 oz
Women: 6.6 oz
Drop: 4 mm
MSRP: $250 (USD)
The Outsole
For a racing shoe, the Elite has quite a bit of outsole rubber to work with. I put quite a few miles on this shoe in the lead up to the New York City Marathon and used this shoe in New York as well. I ran in a variety of conditions and maintained nice traction on the road in nearly every instance. It feels solid cornering and I didn’t notice any area in my stride at any pace where I lost my footing due to a slip against the street.
The Midsole
New Balance has built a remarkably stable midsole into the Elite. There are a lot of shoes that I really enjoy doing my speedwork in, but hate taking walking breaks or warming up/cooling down in them. This shoe feels quite excellent running at sub threshold pacing. Structurally the midsole mirrors the SC Trainer, though the drop is 4 mm lower. There is a little less to this midsole than the SC Trainer, but I’m fine with that as I’m logging a majority of miles in the beefier trainer than I am the racer. This shoe also features the energy arc cutout for more energy return coming off each foot strike.
In many ways if you’re looking at them side by side, it is hard to see the differences, but general with a little less midsole material, we are able to get more out of that plate as well as save some weight for race/speed day. You will definitely feel the pop of the plate more, but New Balance did a good job of maintaining a sense of balance within the shoe so that it is not aggressively too forward, but rather feels smooth through the stride.
The Upper
The upper is another area on this shoe that saves some weight relative to the SC Trainer. There is plenty of structure but when you compare the Elite to the Trainer side by side, you will see that there is less cushion around the heel collar and the material itself (while they both feature the fantomfit label) feels thinner and a bit more breathable than the training counterpart.
The Fit
The fit gets just a little trickier. In my personal experience this shoe runs just a hair short, though I don’t think that I would size up either, it just has a slightly snugger fit. If you grew up running and wearing spikes you might not even notice this, but as an adult onset runner, I do notice that the “racing fit” of some of the high end shoes does feel a bit different. I wore these shoes for the New York City Marathon and had no issues with running out of space, so even though I’m still not fully used to the race fit, I do recommend purchasing true to size.
Running and (maybe) Walking
This is one of my favorite race shoes to date. In my opinion it might be one of the best carbon shoes for a non-elite runner to look at for a few reasons. When we look at the front of the pack, the elites all tend to mirror each other pretty closely, however, as we move further back in the field at any race distance, we see a huge variety of body types and builds. This might be one of the only racing shoes, and is the only one I know of, that is offered in a variety of widths for men and women. It is also incredibly stable in the heel and can be used by people who are running straight through or using a run walk method.
The Elite has excellent turnover but can also run easily with a fair amount of stability. One of my favorite things about this shoe is that I don’t feel the need to warm-up in one shoe, switch out to these for my speed work and then switch back to another shoe to cool down. I can use the same shoe for everything and not be tethered to my car or only do workouts at the track where I can keep an eye on my bag while running.
The bounce and the rebound from the plate in the shoe really shine for me when I’m doing interval repeats, and for me I notice it at sprint repeats or at longer threshold repeat levels. When you feel good early on, it’s easy to keep your legs turning over and feel the bounce in your stride, but when you get to those last 2-3 intervals, that’s when the work you’ve done starts to show and when the shoe can provide some extra feedback for you as well. If you’re hitting your stride right, the bounce is easier to find, even in the suffering of those final repeats.
When we look at the durability of the racing shoes, I do believe that this Elite will rank in the top end of racing shoes for longevity. The fuelcell foam on mine shows so little wear from the miles that I’ve put on them and the structure and feel of the shoe feel the same now as I close in on 100 miles in the shoes as they did on day one.
I work in the running industry and I hear often that people who don’t run “fast” shouldn’t buy the racing shoes because you don’t get the benefit from them. On this point I will disagree. In my opinion, racing shoes can and do benefit runners at every level because when we are pushing the paces in workouts and on race day, we still get the benefit of the extra soft midsole material for our recovery and from the plate for getting that energy return out of our stride. Does everyone get the same benefit from the plate as everyone else? The simple answer is no, because we all have different strides and engage the plate and the shoe at different points and in different ways, but this is also true of elites. It is for this reason that some people will rave about one shoe and despise another, while the very next person will have the exact opposite opinion. Why discuss this now in this particular article about this particular shoe? The fact that this shoe is made in different widths says to me that New Balance understands that the race shoe isn’t just for the “fast” people running under a certain pace threshold.
Is this a shoe that I’m going to use to head out on a casual walk with Spirit? Nope, I struggle turning around the reviews on the speed day shoes because I want to make sure I’m logging quality work in them, so it takes a bit longer to get these done. If, however, you’re a competitive walker, definitely look at putting this one in the quiver. The same thing that makes this an excellent shoe for all levels of the running community make it a premium choice when heel to toe contact is imperative for the form.