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Created page with "{{DISPLAYTITLE:New Balance Hanzo S Review}} The New Balance Hanzo S is a Japanese racing shoe, which gives it a distinctive characteristic. Like other Japanese racing shoes, i..."
{{DISPLAYTITLE:New Balance Hanzo S Review}}
The New Balance Hanzo S is a Japanese racing shoe, which gives it a distinctive characteristic. Like other Japanese racing shoes, it's fairly light, and modestly cushioned, with outstanding grip for fast running on asphalt. The plastic knobs you find on this shoe and other Japanese racing shoes are almost like a track spike for the road, and I wish we had them on a wider variety of styles. There are two major weaknesses to the Hanzo S; the toe box and the upper. The cramped toe box that's common in many running shoes is exacerbated in the Hanzo S, as it is in many Japanese racing shoes. The upper however, is unusual in how high up the rear of the shoe comes, and I found it rubbed slightly on my outside ankle bone. The upper is also the fussy, stiff, and a little thicker than you'd expect from a racing shoe. As a result, I've rated the Hanzo S as "Worth Considering", as I think it will appeal to only a limited niche of runners. {{H:WhatToLookForInShoes}}
<gallery widths=300px heights=300px class="center">
File:New Balance Hanzo S-top.jpg|New Balance Hanzo S top view.
File:New Balance Hanzo S-outside.jpg|New Balance Hanzo S outside view.
File:New Balance Hanzo S-bottom.jpg|New Balance Hanzo S bottom view.
File:New Balance Hanzo S-inside.jpg|New Balance Hanzo S inside view.
</gallery>
{{FastBlr|New Balance-one-one/Hanzo S-2-1062|1062|New Balance Hanzo S}}
=Characteristics=
* {{H:cushioning}}. The Hanzo S reasonably well cushioned for its weight, though it's not up to the standards of the [[Asics Gel Hyper Speed]] which is both better cushioned and lighter. This shoe uses a different type of foam under the forefoot, but you'd never know it. It's not the kind of dramatic difference in cushioning you get between the rear foot and forefoot of a shoe like the [[Hoka Tracer]].
* {{H:drop}}'''. '''New Balance claim the Hanzo S is a 4 mm drop, but I found it a little less from that and effectively zero drop.
* {{H:structure}}. As noted above, the Hanzo S has two types of foam, but there's nothing to interfere with your biomechanics. There is no stability structures, such as a cupped heel, and it runs very neutrally.
* {{H:flexibility}}. The Hanzo S is moderately flexible, with some degree of spring in the forefoot. However, it's a shoe that wants to bend at a specific point. If you look at the images of the sole you'll see a curved line running across the forefoot, and that's the point where the bend occurs. I'm not a fan of shoes that have a crease like that, but I didn't find any problems in practice.
* {{H:outsole}}. The Hanzo S has hard plastic knobs on the forefoot, and these provide good traction on asphalt. I found this works pretty well for [[High Intensity Interval Training]], especially on wet pavement. These plastic knobs appear to be fairly hard wearing, and the rear of the shoe is protected by a few patches of harder rubber outsole. These orange rubber patches seem to wear rather more quickly than I would've expected, but are still far tougher than an exposed midsole foam would be. This also a rigid plastic "X" shape the you can see in a black on the picture above. This makes the midfoot a little bit springy, but that seems an odd place to put it, as your foot bends that the forefoot not the midfoot.
* {{H:shape}}. The Hanzo S is a Japanese racing shoe, that shows in the narrow shape with a horribly constricted toe box. I found that [[Shoe Dissection| cutting open the toe box]] works reasonably well, but the shape is a narrow enough that my toes are on the edge of the shoe rather more than I'd like. {{H:TryCuttingShoes}}.
* {{H:upper}}. I really dislike the upper on the Hanzo S. there is too many synthetic leather overlays and unnecessary reinforcement points. But at the biggest issue I have is that the upper is not cut low enough around the ankle opening, and combined with the overly stiff material I found it tended to irritate the outside of my ankle bone.<br/>[[File:Hanzo S Upper.jpg|center|thumb|300px|The upper backlit to show breathability and overlay patterns.]]
* {{H:tongue}}. The Hanzo S has a normal tongue rather than a tongue-less sock style of upper, and the tongue is slightly padded towards the top. With the flat laces that are very closely spaced, I don't think runners will have an issue with pressure from the laces on the top of the foot.
* {{H:lacing}}. The Hanzo S uses thin flat laces which stay tied. Laces have quite a bit of friction through the eyeholes, and the eyeholes are closely spaced. While this means you can precisely tweak the tension and fit, it also means you need to spend quite a bit of time getting it right.
* {{H:heelcounter}}. The [[Heel Counter]] on the Hanzo S reflects the overall design of the shoe, and is quite hard, and could easily dig in.
=A Comparison with other Recommended Shoes=
{{:Shoes-include}}
The New Balance Hanzo S is a Japanese racing shoe, which gives it a distinctive characteristic. Like other Japanese racing shoes, it's fairly light, and modestly cushioned, with outstanding grip for fast running on asphalt. The plastic knobs you find on this shoe and other Japanese racing shoes are almost like a track spike for the road, and I wish we had them on a wider variety of styles. There are two major weaknesses to the Hanzo S; the toe box and the upper. The cramped toe box that's common in many running shoes is exacerbated in the Hanzo S, as it is in many Japanese racing shoes. The upper however, is unusual in how high up the rear of the shoe comes, and I found it rubbed slightly on my outside ankle bone. The upper is also the fussy, stiff, and a little thicker than you'd expect from a racing shoe. As a result, I've rated the Hanzo S as "Worth Considering", as I think it will appeal to only a limited niche of runners. {{H:WhatToLookForInShoes}}
<gallery widths=300px heights=300px class="center">
File:New Balance Hanzo S-top.jpg|New Balance Hanzo S top view.
File:New Balance Hanzo S-outside.jpg|New Balance Hanzo S outside view.
File:New Balance Hanzo S-bottom.jpg|New Balance Hanzo S bottom view.
File:New Balance Hanzo S-inside.jpg|New Balance Hanzo S inside view.
</gallery>
{{FastBlr|New Balance-one-one/Hanzo S-2-1062|1062|New Balance Hanzo S}}
=Characteristics=
* {{H:cushioning}}. The Hanzo S reasonably well cushioned for its weight, though it's not up to the standards of the [[Asics Gel Hyper Speed]] which is both better cushioned and lighter. This shoe uses a different type of foam under the forefoot, but you'd never know it. It's not the kind of dramatic difference in cushioning you get between the rear foot and forefoot of a shoe like the [[Hoka Tracer]].
* {{H:drop}}'''. '''New Balance claim the Hanzo S is a 4 mm drop, but I found it a little less from that and effectively zero drop.
* {{H:structure}}. As noted above, the Hanzo S has two types of foam, but there's nothing to interfere with your biomechanics. There is no stability structures, such as a cupped heel, and it runs very neutrally.
* {{H:flexibility}}. The Hanzo S is moderately flexible, with some degree of spring in the forefoot. However, it's a shoe that wants to bend at a specific point. If you look at the images of the sole you'll see a curved line running across the forefoot, and that's the point where the bend occurs. I'm not a fan of shoes that have a crease like that, but I didn't find any problems in practice.
* {{H:outsole}}. The Hanzo S has hard plastic knobs on the forefoot, and these provide good traction on asphalt. I found this works pretty well for [[High Intensity Interval Training]], especially on wet pavement. These plastic knobs appear to be fairly hard wearing, and the rear of the shoe is protected by a few patches of harder rubber outsole. These orange rubber patches seem to wear rather more quickly than I would've expected, but are still far tougher than an exposed midsole foam would be. This also a rigid plastic "X" shape the you can see in a black on the picture above. This makes the midfoot a little bit springy, but that seems an odd place to put it, as your foot bends that the forefoot not the midfoot.
* {{H:shape}}. The Hanzo S is a Japanese racing shoe, that shows in the narrow shape with a horribly constricted toe box. I found that [[Shoe Dissection| cutting open the toe box]] works reasonably well, but the shape is a narrow enough that my toes are on the edge of the shoe rather more than I'd like. {{H:TryCuttingShoes}}.
* {{H:upper}}. I really dislike the upper on the Hanzo S. there is too many synthetic leather overlays and unnecessary reinforcement points. But at the biggest issue I have is that the upper is not cut low enough around the ankle opening, and combined with the overly stiff material I found it tended to irritate the outside of my ankle bone.<br/>[[File:Hanzo S Upper.jpg|center|thumb|300px|The upper backlit to show breathability and overlay patterns.]]
* {{H:tongue}}. The Hanzo S has a normal tongue rather than a tongue-less sock style of upper, and the tongue is slightly padded towards the top. With the flat laces that are very closely spaced, I don't think runners will have an issue with pressure from the laces on the top of the foot.
* {{H:lacing}}. The Hanzo S uses thin flat laces which stay tied. Laces have quite a bit of friction through the eyeholes, and the eyeholes are closely spaced. While this means you can precisely tweak the tension and fit, it also means you need to spend quite a bit of time getting it right.
* {{H:heelcounter}}. The [[Heel Counter]] on the Hanzo S reflects the overall design of the shoe, and is quite hard, and could easily dig in.
=A Comparison with other Recommended Shoes=
{{:Shoes-include}}