New Balance Fresh Foam Lav - TERRIBLE Durability

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Sweets3450

New User
Update: New Balance finally provided a coupon for another pair of shoes.

Delivered on June 28th, used between first week of July until today Aug 23rd.

They have been disintegrating after day 1. I really tried to baby them, rarely slid, and was always aware that the durability would be an issue while running on them. It's absurd such a high priced shoe didn't even last 2 months.

I will try to use the outsole warranty as they're not longer safe to wear. I will be very upset if New Balance considers this outside the warranty. At the rate these broke down, I would consider them defective.

In the 1st picture, I'm barely pressing down on the front of the sole to pull it down. It turned into a flip flop and I tripped on the court, had to stop playing for the day as they didn't feel safe. It wore down very quickly. I knew the toe area was starting to dig a hole, but it was in similar shape to the other shoe and after about an hour it was in much worse shape than I thought.

I did not purchase through TW as they don't often carry my size so I'm hoping there is possibly a New Balance representative who can assist me, perhaps I received a defective pair. If not, this is a stark warning to avoid these shoes entirely. In retrospect, I should have slid far more aggressively to utilize the warranty. Maybe I'll super glue and tape them until the outsole is worn down to be covered by the warranty.

https://imgur.com/a/oLSgFBG
 
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I looked at the pictures and don’t think the outsole warranty will apply since the outsoles are not worn down to the midsole. Hopefully they will consider it defective and provide you a replacement.
 
I am starting to have the same issue with mine albeit not as bad yet. It's a shame bc I like everything else about the shoe but my outsoles are starting to pull away from the upper as well in areas where they have the most wear.

Spidy
 
sp1derman said:
I am starting to have the same issue with mine albeit not as bad yet. It's a shame bc I like everything else about the shoe but my outsoles are starting to pull away from the upper as well in areas where they have the most wear.

Spidy
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Do you live/play in a very humide climate? I noticed that happening to a lot of my shoes (not NB) because of the humidity of my environment.
 
airchallenge2 said:
Do you live/play in a very humide climate? I noticed that happening to a lot of my shoes (not NB) because of the humidity of my environment.
Click to expand...

Yes I do. I live in south east Pennsylvania and keep my shoes in my non-climate controlled garage. Yet, I never had any of these problems when I stored my Nike's in the same garage. I'm thinking about trying the GP turbos unless an updated version of the FF LAVs is coming out.
 
I'll never purchase NB after what I have read about their cheapskate warranty department.

You reap what you sow, NB.
 
sp1derman said:
Yes I do. I live in south east Pennsylvania and keep my shoes in my non-climate controlled garage. Yet, I never had any of these problems when I stored my Nike's in the same garage. I'm thinking about trying the GP turbos unless an updated version of the FF LAVs is coming out.
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From my personal experience: the bounding between midsole and that type of upper (plastic/PU/rubber) is not durable in a climate with high humidity. I'll show you photos of my Vapors that have this problem...
 
Uncoil said:
Can you explain? I've returned three pairs to NB for outsole warranty and all three were approved.
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Many here have reported problems with returns. Some said that NB only allowed one warranty return per customer (ever, not per shoe). Maybe they've changed their ways by now but I'll never be a customer from what I've read on here.
 
Shaolin said:
I'll never purchase NB after what I have read about their cheapskate warranty department.

You reap what you sow, NB.
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Ive heard bad things about KSwiss's warranty process as well. My friends sent their worn down shoes within the warranty period and never got anything back.
 
Shaolin said:
I'll never purchase NB after what I have read about their cheapskate warranty department.

You reap what you sow, NB.
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I have used their outsole warranty once and it was a very smooth process. I got a voucher to order new shoes with my choice of color and size no questions asked. Looks like they have improved from all the negative feedback
 
Shaolin said:
Many here have reported problems with returns. Some said that NB only allowed one warranty return per customer (ever, not per shoe). Maybe they've changed their ways by now but I'll never be a customer from what I've read on here.
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Used to be the case. They have since updated their warranty claim policy. Now it’s one outsole warranty claim per purchase
 
Most shoes now use waterbased glue (as they should!) to reduce toxicity in products. As you can imagine, water based means they are more susceptible to humidity. I've left all brands of shoes hot (over 80s°F) and humid (over 70+%) conditions, and they invariably start falling around 2 years.
Looking at the pic, the toe guard is worn more than the bottom of the outsole. There are even chunks missing. Did the outsole unglue and you continued to use it?
 
It became unglued fully and thenunusable on each foot. I blame the outsole itself as it broke off on each foot in small chunks rather than slowly wearing down like every other tennis shoe I've had. Unsure if this is due to the material or how it's designed into the toe.
 
I used super glue to reattach the soles so I can then wear them out and utilize the warranty. I sent my info to New Balance to initiate the warranty replacement despite the soles not being totally worn through according to their warranty language, even though they've already broken into pieces. I haven't heard back in over a week, it's very disappointing. If they do not honor the warranty I will no longer buy New Balance shoes.
 
Sweets3450 said:
I haven't heard back in over a week, it's very disappointing.
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wow. enraging just to read. can't imagine experiencing it **sulks**
Sweets3450 said:
If they do not honor the warranty I will no longer buy New Balance shoes
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fkn right! :mad: i ****inged loved their ct1002s from the early 2000s and havn't tried NB in a long time until i got the MC996V3 recently. ordered in 2e width but felt like i got even thinner than usual. its not just me. others agree as well
tennisbike said:
The exchanged 996v3 2E 9.5 at least allowed me to get on the court. But I got a black toe on the first outting and that was it. I gave the shoes away. The plastic piece that holds the forefoot in place was so rigid and did not seems to be able to break in. Still, I think the 9.5 even at 2E has the toe box or ceiling too low.
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seems like they took away the ridgidity from their flagship shoes, renamed it LAV. but then the durability that came from the rigidity left as well
 
A slight tangent, but anyone else find the name of these shoes unintentionally hilarious? It sounds like a brand name of one of those blue things you put in your toilet...
 
Update: I tried multiple times but New Balance would not replace the shoes. They did not qualify for the outsole warranty despite the outsole cracking and disintegrating. They referred me to the general customer support which never responded to any of my emails. I will never purchase New Balance shoes again.

There are a dozen other shoes that compete with these and they don't won't fall apart in under 2 months. Really disappointed in New Balance. I wish TW had carried my size, at least they would have helped assist me during the process and maybe they could have replaced them.
 
Oh man that sucks!

Just wanted to chime in and agree with @mad dog1 that K-Swiss has a fast easy process to get replacement shoes now - 10/10. You don't even send in the shoes, just a photo.
 
Great to hear! I'm wearing the Hypercourt Express and they've already lasted 3 months with no severe signs of wear. Much sturdier shoe, feels more like the Barricade. No outsole warranty but the durability is much better.
 
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strange. I'm in houston (the bayou city) with very high humidity and this hasn't happened to me through 3 pairs of Lavs. I know new balance used to do 1 warranty per lifetime but I also heard they changed to 1 per shoe purchase. I've sent my first pair in, hoping that foam showing through the rubber outsole counts.
 
Just wanted to put in a good word for NB here.

Im a bit of a chronic outsole burner, and have gone through it on two pairs of the fresh foam Lavs and New Balance honoured returns in both cases.

Probably wont be buying any more pairs unless there are more warranty redemptions (started wearing the Nike GP Turbos, Babolat SFX3's and Adidas Ubersonic 4's a lot now) but I thought New Balance handled the returns process extremely well.
 
my shoes were lost by UPS enroute to NB, they sent me a coupon code anyway after i followed up on the status via email. Seems their warranty stance has changed alot since the original 996 days.
 
I haven't any issues with NB returns (I've returned two 1296s and a pair of the 996).
As long as you register the warranty with them on their website via a return I think you should be okay.
They even provide a return shipping label (which is nice because with adidas and Asics sometimes that can cost $10-15 just to ship back).
 
Another update, they provided me a coupon for a new pair of shoes finally. It did take a bit of persistance but I received an email with a coupon and no need to send the shoes back. I linked them this thread, I wonder if that had any lasting impact on getting this resolved. I'm glad they agreed there was a problem.
 
I've not used New Balance in years. Although I thought they were a very comfortable shoe, they always seemed to stretch out on me and didn't seem to give me the support down the road that I needed. Went back to K-Swiss about 10 or so years ago and haven't had any problems.
 
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