WildVolley
Legend
Summary: The most ‘minimal’ modern tennis shoe on the market is light weight, low to the ground with a low drop height, has a noticeable midsole with light cushioning, and has medium toe box room. It is a reasonable choice as a match-day shoe for a hard court player who is conditioned for minimal footwear or as a clay court shoe for those with healthy feet.
New Balance has been selling a line of minimal running shoes called the ‘Minimus’ designed for the runner who wants a more ‘barefoot’ experience with some grip and outsole protection, a low to zero drop from heel to toe and a lightweight shoe without arch support. The MC60 is the first tennis specific shoe said to be inspired by this line. While the shoe is designed for clay courts with a full herringbone outsole, I play hard court tennis and am using this shoe for hard court play.
How Minimal?
The MC60 is probably the most minimal shoe made specifically for tennis. However, it is half-way to minimal compared to running products sold by VivoBarefoot. In a VivoBarefoot shoe, if you remove the insole you are standing directly on the outsole. If you remove the insole from a pair of MC60 you’ll still notice that you are standing on top of a cushioned midsole on top of an outsole. In actual play, the MC60 feels less cushioned than most tennis shoes, with noticeable heel shock if you have to lunge and slap your heel down on the court. You can feel the cushioning, but it does feel ‘minimal.’
In terms of numbers, newyorkstadium has measured the heel stack height at 16mm and the forefoot stack height at 10mm for a drop of 6mm, while NB lists it as having a 4mm drop. In any case the shoe has a low drop though compared to barefoot the drop was still noticeable. Also, the stack height is low. The Nike Zoom Vapor 9.5 is known as a low to the ground shoe and still the MC60 has 5mm less stack height in the forefoot and more than a cm less in the heel. The low stack height gives the MC60 a fast grounded feel. I stand by my contention that lower drop shoes feel more athletic because the calves are not in as much of a pre-tensed state when you are on your toes. The downside to this is that the lower drop will put more stress on the Achilles tendon of a player who is used to larger drop shoes. So I caution you to limit play time at first if you are transitioning from a higher drop shoe.
The last shape of the MC60 is not ideal for my feet. I tend to measure 11.5E on a Brannock device, but with a wide toe spread. For example, my feet tore out the sides of the toe box of a size 11.5 Prince T22. For this reason I ordered a size 12EE shoe, as TW stated that the MC60 runs narrow and short. I agree with the advice to size up 1/2-size. The toe box felt too narrow when trying the shoes on indoors, but the shoe quickly softened up and the toe box expanded after just a half-hour on court. The EE shoe is slightly too wide in the heel for my E-width feet, but nothing that can’t be solved with slightly thicker socks. I’ve never been a big fan of NB last shapes. In my opinion, a minimal shoe should have more toe box width and less heel width as walking barefoot allows the toes to spread and splay. Most people have feet that are shaped by shoes. A true ‘minimal’ shoe should have a last shape more like a product from Altra, VB, or Lems .
Durability
I do not expect the MC60 to be a durable hard court shoe because the outsole is clearly designed for clay with some width between the herringbone treads. However, I’ve found the durability to be acceptable so far. I’m only a slight toe dragger on running forehands and after fewer than four hours of hard court play the visible wear on the treads is still minimal. I think the light weight and low-to-the-ground feel of the MC60 encourages nimble movement and less foot dragging. The traction on medium grit hard courts was fine with the shoe only making some creaking noises on quick direction changes at net. The ability of the shoe to torque during quick lunges was apparent. I plan to primarily use these shoes as match-day shoes and to use heavier durability shoes for most practicing.
Cautionary note: While not truly minimal, I still think it is possible that someone who is used to heavily padded tennis shoes with a large heel-to-toe drop could be injured by not transitioning slowly to play in the MC60. I try to spend as much time as possible not wearing shoes (something helped by living in a beach town) and most of the time wear zero-drop shoes and flip-flops when wearing shoes. Even so, I feel slightly more foot stress after playing tennis when wearing the MC60s as compared to the Prince and Yonex shoes I normally wear. So I advise you to use common sense and give your feet time to adjust if you decide to play tennis in more minimal shoes. If you play tennis barefoot or in Vivobarefoot shoes, I don’t think you will need any transition time at all.
New Balance has been selling a line of minimal running shoes called the ‘Minimus’ designed for the runner who wants a more ‘barefoot’ experience with some grip and outsole protection, a low to zero drop from heel to toe and a lightweight shoe without arch support. The MC60 is the first tennis specific shoe said to be inspired by this line. While the shoe is designed for clay courts with a full herringbone outsole, I play hard court tennis and am using this shoe for hard court play.
How Minimal?
The MC60 is probably the most minimal shoe made specifically for tennis. However, it is half-way to minimal compared to running products sold by VivoBarefoot. In a VivoBarefoot shoe, if you remove the insole you are standing directly on the outsole. If you remove the insole from a pair of MC60 you’ll still notice that you are standing on top of a cushioned midsole on top of an outsole. In actual play, the MC60 feels less cushioned than most tennis shoes, with noticeable heel shock if you have to lunge and slap your heel down on the court. You can feel the cushioning, but it does feel ‘minimal.’
In terms of numbers, newyorkstadium has measured the heel stack height at 16mm and the forefoot stack height at 10mm for a drop of 6mm, while NB lists it as having a 4mm drop. In any case the shoe has a low drop though compared to barefoot the drop was still noticeable. Also, the stack height is low. The Nike Zoom Vapor 9.5 is known as a low to the ground shoe and still the MC60 has 5mm less stack height in the forefoot and more than a cm less in the heel. The low stack height gives the MC60 a fast grounded feel. I stand by my contention that lower drop shoes feel more athletic because the calves are not in as much of a pre-tensed state when you are on your toes. The downside to this is that the lower drop will put more stress on the Achilles tendon of a player who is used to larger drop shoes. So I caution you to limit play time at first if you are transitioning from a higher drop shoe.
The last shape of the MC60 is not ideal for my feet. I tend to measure 11.5E on a Brannock device, but with a wide toe spread. For example, my feet tore out the sides of the toe box of a size 11.5 Prince T22. For this reason I ordered a size 12EE shoe, as TW stated that the MC60 runs narrow and short. I agree with the advice to size up 1/2-size. The toe box felt too narrow when trying the shoes on indoors, but the shoe quickly softened up and the toe box expanded after just a half-hour on court. The EE shoe is slightly too wide in the heel for my E-width feet, but nothing that can’t be solved with slightly thicker socks. I’ve never been a big fan of NB last shapes. In my opinion, a minimal shoe should have more toe box width and less heel width as walking barefoot allows the toes to spread and splay. Most people have feet that are shaped by shoes. A true ‘minimal’ shoe should have a last shape more like a product from Altra, VB, or Lems .
Durability
I do not expect the MC60 to be a durable hard court shoe because the outsole is clearly designed for clay with some width between the herringbone treads. However, I’ve found the durability to be acceptable so far. I’m only a slight toe dragger on running forehands and after fewer than four hours of hard court play the visible wear on the treads is still minimal. I think the light weight and low-to-the-ground feel of the MC60 encourages nimble movement and less foot dragging. The traction on medium grit hard courts was fine with the shoe only making some creaking noises on quick direction changes at net. The ability of the shoe to torque during quick lunges was apparent. I plan to primarily use these shoes as match-day shoes and to use heavier durability shoes for most practicing.
Cautionary note: While not truly minimal, I still think it is possible that someone who is used to heavily padded tennis shoes with a large heel-to-toe drop could be injured by not transitioning slowly to play in the MC60. I try to spend as much time as possible not wearing shoes (something helped by living in a beach town) and most of the time wear zero-drop shoes and flip-flops when wearing shoes. Even so, I feel slightly more foot stress after playing tennis when wearing the MC60s as compared to the Prince and Yonex shoes I normally wear. So I advise you to use common sense and give your feet time to adjust if you decide to play tennis in more minimal shoes. If you play tennis barefoot or in Vivobarefoot shoes, I don’t think you will need any transition time at all.
