New Balance Ellipse v1 Review: Ain’t No Scrappy Doo

Introduction to the New Balance Ellipse v1

THOMAS: Let me be straight with you: I walked into this one skeptical. The Ellipse felt like New Balance reaching — like when the Scooby-Doo writers introduced Scrappy-Doo to breathe life into a franchise that was running on fumes. Scrappy was small, loud, and threw himself headfirst into fights his body had no business being in. He was the Napoleon complex personified. The question I kept asking myself: Is the Ellipse just New Balance’s Scrappy-Doo for the Fresh Foam line? A pint-sized personality injection into something that needed a jolt?

Here’s the thing, though, Scrappy kind of worked.

The Fresh Foam 880 sits at $149 and, on paper, the Ellipse at $145 looks like its little sibling. But the cool kids were never checking for the 880. New Balance has bigger fish to fry. They want a seat at the table with the Novablast crowd, with the Evo SL club runners, with the people who care about what’s on their feet and what those feet look like showing up to a Saturday morning group run.

About four years ago, I sat in a conference room at the Lenox Hotel in Boston. New Balance had assembled a small group of reviewers to get some real talk on their product direction. The shoes were laid out. FuelCell stuff had some heat, but the Fresh Foam lineup wasn’t landing. I went on a bit of a tear.

My argument: New Balance has lifestyle on lock, the colorways, the culture, the cachet, so why does their performance line look like it was designed by someone who only shops at a hospital gift shop? I heard later that a senior person in the room essentially said, “Who the F does this guy think he is?” That person and I are actually friends now. And looking at the Ellipse, I think the message eventually landed.

The Ellipse might be the best-looking Fresh Foam shoe New Balance has ever made. Full stop. It was engineered from the jump to live in endless colorways. This is a shoe built to run, but also built to be seen. Run to the coffee shop. Run your errands. Post the fit pic. It carries that New Balance lifestyle DNA while still being a legitimate performance product. Don’t forget, the 990 started in performance and became a cultural artifact. The Ellipse seems to understand that assignment.

Under the hood, it’s refreshingly uncomplicated: a clean mesh upper, and a 37.9 mm / 29.9 mm stack of Fresh Foam X with an 8 mm drop. No gimmicks. Just a well-tuned platform trying to earn a new audience.

WIDE-FOOT JARRETT: I think my first real look at the Ellipse was at an insider New Balance event at the NYC Marathon last year. I was curious about it, and after hearing the story, a bit more intrigued, but not overly excited.

During my time reviewing, I’ve complained way too much about wanting better-looking running shoes. Give me the lifestyle look with the performance. That’s what New Balance was looking to achieve here, so let’s see how they did.

KALEB: I don’t have the pedigree of the guys above me; my first look at the Ellipse was a leaked bootleg Reddit image from The Running Event or something — I’m honestly not entirely sure. Either way, I was impressed by the look of the shoe; I honestly thought it was going to be a second attempt at the all-PEBA Balos, but no, New Balance decided to go with another daily trainer, marketed to bridge the gap between lifestyle and running without skimping on either. Let’s see how they did.

LINDSAY: I’ve been extremely fortunate to get a rotation of excellent shoes to test lately (check out the Hoka Mach 7 and Brooks Glycerin GTS 23 reviews). The New Balance Ellipse v1 is just another addition to that. Probably the first New Balance shoe I can recall that isn’t named with a number. Which is ironic because this made me think of the other non-numbered shoe from New Balance: the Balos. Do you guys remember that one? First introduced in August of 2024 and reviewed by us, but I haven’t heard a whisper about it since.

The Ellipse v1 doesn’t have the PEBA-infused foam that was blended with the Fresh Foam X in Balos, but it does have Fresh Foam X, and that’s really all it needs. There is a less aggressive rocker than the Balos, yet with more responsiveness and improved aesthetics. Can you tell yet that I liked the New Balance Ellipse v1? The upper might be a mirror image of other New Balance shoes, but the midsole has a new design with more flair.

Which brings us to the important question: Does the performance meet the aesthetics?

What we like about the New Balance Ellipse v1

THOMAS: My first run in the Ellipse was a gut-check moment. I had my skepticism dialed up, fully prepared to file this one under “nice try.” Then I started running, and something shifted.

The shoe feels light, lighter than the 9.95 oz. / 280 grams would have you think. And the fit? Nearly perfect out of the box. The mesh breathes the way mesh should, the gusseted tongue stays put, and the collar and heel counter have just enough padding to feel protective without that suffocating, over-engineered sensation that some trainers fall into. Zero hot spots. Zero heel lift. It just… fits.

But the real surprise was the foam.

I’ve been lukewarm on Fresh Foam X for a while; it’s competent, sure, but it rarely makes me feel anything. The Ellipse changed that. The best way I can describe this ride is a beefed-up FuelCell Rebel. There’s a cushioned fun factor here that I wasn’t expecting from this platform. It’s lively. It has a little pop to it. It doesn’t feel like you’re running on a comfortable compromise.

I put in my regular daily miles and was happy. But then, on a whim — and I genuinely can’t explain what possessed me, I decided to run a speed workout in it. I don’t usually do that. Speed shoes are the first choice for workouts, and daily trainers stay in their lane. But I was feeling the Ellipse, so I went for it. Simple session: two-mile warmup, 10 x 1-minute at 7-minute pace, two miles easy to cool down. The workout went exactly to plan. The shoe handled it without complaint, the traction was more than adequate, and my feet never once wanted out.

Scrappy-Doo dove headfirst into trouble he had no business being in, and usually came out fine. Turns out, so does the Ellipse.

WIDE-FOOT JARRETT: Obviously, I’m starting with the aesthetics, and they are hot. The design team at New Balance crushed the lifestyle details they wanted to integrate. Sure, the Ellipse is a running shoe, but I foresee it becoming my go-to for wearing out and about because it’s not often the wide-foot fam gets a stylish pair of kicks.

I think the fit of the 2E is great. It has a spacious toe box and ample room in the midfoot. The engineered mesh is soft, and the overlays provide support without pressure. The padded tongue and heel collar are also top-notch for comfort.

The Fresh Foam X midsole feels great underfoot. Here, it’s formulated to give a nice, cushioned feel without an overly soft or mushy sensation. My pair of 10.5 2E weighs 10.2 oz., and I can’t help but think of it as a slimmed-down 880v15 (which I thought was great). With the big introduction of Infinion to the 1080v15 this year, it almost feels like the Ellipse should have been the 1080, and the 1080 should have gotten a new name.

The longest run I did in the Ellipse was 7 miles. I think past 10, I’d want to be in more of a performance shoe, but everything up to that was a pleasure. You know that joyful carefree feeling you get when listening to Olivia Dean’s Man I Need? You know what I’m talking about… don’t try to deny it. That’s kind of how I feel in the Ellipse. Daily miles you can bop to.

KALEB: I’ll skip the yap on aesthetics, but yeah, good stuff, New Balance; very sexy. Next.

I think I agree with Jarrett more than Thomas on the ride character. Underfoot, this formulation of Fresh Foam X is great for recovery. Walking around, the Ellipse is probably my most comfortable shoe, without feeling like my feet are suffocating in a mattress. On the run, it’s soft and cushioned, but not particularly responsive. I would give a big gulp if I were caught wearing these on workout day, and while I suppose they have enough bounce to handle it if the need arose, for me personally, as a runner who relies on very high cadence, a shoe this soft just isn’t prepared to be an all-rounder.

Cushion is what this shoe does, and it does it well. I took the Ellipse out for an 11-mile route on some of the more regret-inducing hills here in south-central PA, and the midsole performed great. Especially in the later miles, when the downhill pounding started to aggravate my lingering IT band pain, the Ellipse provided the shield I needed between me and the impact. As a whole, the Ellipse reminded me of a cross between the Diadora Frequenza’s softness and the New Balance 1080v14’s ride.

Up top, the upper hits the sweet spot of feeling premium and padded without being excessively warm or stifling. Underfoot, the rubber coverage is ample, and I never had any issues in wet conditions.

LINDSAY: The upper is very comfortable, with a retro, dad-sneaker vibe — very on par with other classic New Balance uppers. It fits true to size; I didn’t feel like it was narrow only because the upper is flexible, but there is a Wide option if you’re regularly on the fence. It took a little finagling with the laces to get it secure without being too compressive. Once I got that locked down (ha), I actually didn’t even need to untie and retie every time I went for a run. Just shimmy them on and go. Maybe a little less shimmying if there was a pull tab.

The Fresh Foam X is responsive and bouncy. Dare I say this even felt squishy at the heel, almost like a max cushion shoe without the max stack. There’s certainly enough Fresh Foam X here that these don’t qualify for the work-straight-to-run category. That’s not a complaint, just an observation. These are perfect for daily training. My preferred use was for medium-long runs or short, slow recovery runs. The outsole has solid traction in rainy conditions and has held up well for the 40 miles I got in them before sitting down to write this.

What we don’t like about the New Balance Ellipse v1

THOMAS: Honestly? There isn’t much to nitpick here. The price is competitive, the shoe looks like something you’d actually want to wear, and it backs up those looks with real performance. New Balance didn’t just dress up a mediocre platform and call it a lifestyle shoe. The Ellipse earns its keep on the road.

My one lingering concern is the foam’s longevity. At 23 miles into testing, I haven’t experienced significant compression yet, but my gut is telling me the stack might pack down faster than what you’d get out of a Novablast or something riding on Lightstrike Pro. That’s not a dealbreaker, but it’s worth keeping an eye on if you’re planning to put serious miles on these. If you’re rotating them into a two or three-shoe quiver, you’re probably fine. If this is your one-and-done workhorse trainer, check back in at 300 miles.

WIDE-FOOT JARRETT: What don’t I like about the Ellipse? That’s kind of tough to say. Sure, maybe I’d want to feel faster going in on longer runs, but that’s not what this shoe is for. For a classic daily trainer, the Ellipse doesn’t have any glaring weak spots.

KALEB: The heel fits a bit wide on the Ellipse, which didn’t ruin lockdown, but definitely meant I needed to give the laces a good wrench to keep everything in check. Other than that, this shoe performs great and is priced right where it ought to be!

I know Thomas gave somewhat of an answer to this, but I still have to wonder: why the heck does this shoe exist? The 880 is a high-stack, cushioned daily trainer. The 1080 (which isn’t FreshFoam anymore, but c’mon, it’s still in the lineup) is a high-stack, cushioned daily trainer. The More is a (very) high-stack, cushioned daily trainer. The Ellipse is… a slightly sexier looking high-stack, cushioned daily trainer.

I get it that the Fresh Foam line isn’t really about speed — FuelCell has that covered. But if all your options boil down to mild-to-moderate differences in foam durometer, there’s a real redundancy problem that doesn’t really expand your lineup. Culture and vibes alone aren’t enough justification for a new release.

If the 880 began to trim its fat back in response to the Ellipse and become the slightly lower, more aggressive daily trainer it used to be in the Fresh Foam lineup, that would help define the hierarchy a bit better, in my opinion. In theory, the FreshFoam line could make a lot of sense as: 880, Ellipse, More, in ascending cushion levels… with the 1080 out on whatever side quest it’s on.

LINDSAY: I thought the tongue could have been dialed down; it was a little high and rubbed against my ankle every now and then. This shoe didn’t do me any favors for speed work, but I don’t think that was its intended purpose. I also noticed it lost some of its responsiveness and bounce with runs over 10 miles (i.e when I needed it the most).

Final thoughts on the New Balance Ellipse v1

THOMAS: I like this shoe. It isn’t a do-it-all shoe. I would want other trainers to fill the gaps for speed, racing, and log runs, but this could be your best travel buddy. Style and performance on lock. What I will say is this: the casual wear test has been a genuine plus. I’ve been sliding into the Ellipse between runs, errands, just moving through the day, and it’s holding up. Comfortable after hours on the feet, no breakdown in structure, and my pair still looks fresh. That dual-life capability is exactly what New Balance was going for, and they nailed it.

The Ellipse isn’t Scrappy-Doo desperately trying to save a dying cartoon. It’s something better; A shoe that showed up with something to prove and quietly delivered. New Balance found the formula: take the lifestyle DNA that made them a cultural institution, inject it into a genuinely capable running platform, and price it where real runners actually shop.

Sometimes, the little guy surprises you.

WIDE-FOOT JARRETT: So yeah, about the Ellipse. I had my doubts at first, but New Balance seems to have succeeded with its intended goal.

Even with the lack of complaints, I’m not going to say the Ellipse is an absolutely amazing shoe. However, it’s a very good shoe. I’ve come to this realization the more I sit here and write out my thoughts. There are no wide fit issues. No uncomfortable upper. No harsh ride criticisms. I’ve enjoyed all my runs with nothing but comfort.

The Ellipse checks off all the boxes that we look for with a daily trainer and has the sweet lifestyle looks to go with it.

KALEB: While I don’t quite share Thomas’ optimism on the Ellipse’s range as a trainer, I really did enjoy my miles in the shoe. New Balance has yet another solid trainer in the Fresh Foam lineup, and hopefully, as they move forward, they’re able to define better roles for these shoes relative to one another.

I’m left complacently content with New Balance’s latest offering. It’s another decent shoe in a world of decent shoes, not rocking the boat with anything but looks, and playing it rather safe. I wonder if New Balance will ever release something risky, or — heaven forbid — innovative.

LINDSAY: Overall, the New Balance Ellipse v1 is a solid new addition to the high-quality New Balance lineup. I agree with Kaleb that it isn’t exactly groundbreaking, but the price point is extremely fair for the mileage you can stack, and that was something I could not say about the mysteriously missing New Balance Balos (someone, a wellness check to the Balos household, please). Plus, it’s a good-looking shoe, and you know what they say, “look good, feel good, run good.” I can only hope that we see more of this line in the future.

You can pick up the New Balance Ellipse v1 for $145 from New Balance by using the buttons below.