New Balance Wants You To Cover Both Feet With A Minimalist Shell

According to Ad Age, athletic shoe brands are starting to put major marketing dollars behind lightweight or minimalist running styles this year.

The 2009 book, Born to Run, which followed a tribe of distance runners in Mexico who run in flat, homemade sandals, is credited with bringing the category in to the mainstream.

Lightweight products accounted for 28% of the running category in the second quarter. Minimalist styles, a subset of lightweight, accounted for 5% of the running category.

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New Balance, which launched its Minimus collection in March, used 3point5.com, a training portal, to educate store employees. The brand is also running an ad campaign from Arnold/Boston with the tag, “Like barefoot only better.”