New Balance Fresh Foam BB v2 review

Let the New Balance Fresh Foam BB v2 take you to a softer world if:

• You're looking for crazy good impact protection and very soft cushioning.
• A pair with fantastic shock absorption and grip to hoop for hours on end is what you need.
• You need a super comfortable basketball shoe with very good support.
• You're a centre or more of a bigger/post-player!

The Fresh Foam BB v2 focuses on comfort and protection, which implies loads of padding, cushioning, and reinforcement. Consequently, it's definitely not a light shoe! During our wear tests, we didn't feel it dragged our feet down like crazy, but we can assure you it doesn't feel like a couple of feathers either. That's why we believe this New Balance might be more suitable for bigger players/centres/post-players! If your playstyle relies on quick footwork, maybe you should have a look at our lightweight basketball shoe catalogue.

Just in the same way, all the impact protection and shock-absorbing properties of this hooper didn't let us feel the court under our feet during our wear tests. If you want to feel closer to the ground and you want to try New Balance basketball shoes, the Hesi Low might be exactly what you need!

At 34.9 mm, this shoe's heel stack is higher than average.

As you can see, our calliper had to open wide before it could fit such a big chunk of foam between its claws! During our games, this translated into heavenly comfort and incredible shock absorption.

So, even though we couldn't really feel the court under our feet, this shoe made sure our landings were safe and soft!

The forefoot followed the same scheme, as our calliper indicated that it's also higher than average at 25.6 mm.

What we liked the most about this is that the Fresh Foam BB v2 doesn't forget about the forefoot. Like, you know, there are many times when shoes are incredibly cushioning at the heel, but not so much at the ball of the foot. In this case, New Balance made sure we felt safe landing with any part of our feet.

One of the reasons why we appreciated this a lot was that, when you've been hooping for a while, you start falling using just your forefoot (as far as possible). This protects your knees and lets you regain balance sooner, so we believe getting some extra cushioning in that area is a fantastic choice.

Despite having a higher forefoot, the Fresh Foam BB v2 doesn't have a very low drop.

At 9.3 mm, it's definitely higher than average. Nevertheless, we didn't feel anything different when we walked or ran with the shoe. In other words, we didn't have to get used to it or readjust our foot to its ride.

Now that we have a full visual of this New Balance's interior, let's talk about it. The shoe features a full-length and dual-density Fresh Foam X midsole, which feels incredibly soft (as we'll verify in the next section) and comfortable. It also has a TPU shank in the midfoot that offers that little bit of bounce, even though we didn't feel it much.

Just by looking at how padded the interiors of this shoe are and feeling how soft its midsole is, there's no doubt: The Fresh Foam BB v2 is all about comfort and support.

As we had already hinted, this shoe's midsole is clearly on the softer side.

Our durometer returned just 13.1 HA when we measured it, and trust us, our feet could tell! Also, this shoe is comfortable right out of the box, which is something we love as it lets us just go play ball straight away. 

In other words, if you're not a fan of break-in periods, the Fresh Foam BB v2 is a fantastic choice!

Its crazy soft and comfy bottom doesn't really need a very thick insole, or at least that's how we see it.

When we removed this shoe's insole and measured it with our calliper, we realised New Balance totally agreed with us. At 4.9 mm, its thickness is just average, and honestly, we wouldn't change that.

After our wear tests, we can say that you feel pretty far off the ground in this hooper, which might lead to feeling slightly unstable. If the brand had used a thicker insole, our feet would've been even more separated from the court!

Once we had placed our calliper just in the upper, without opening it up to cover this New Balance's sole flare, we saw it returned 99.2 mm.

This is definitely not on the wide side of the spectrum, and even though our standard-sized feet felt comfortable, we can see wide-foot hoopers feeling cramped.

After all, the Free Foam BB v2 is super padded, and its materials are pretty rigid. Nevertheless, when you play in it, its upper gives in a bit. But we just don't think it'd be enough to accommodate wide-foot players.

Its round toebox offers some extra wiggle wrong for the toes, which is something we really appreciated.

Our calliper returned 80.5 mm, which is way more than average. We could splay our toes comfortably in every landing, which made us feel more stable after every jump.

Even though we've already mentioned it before, we can't get tired of saying how supportive this New Balance felt on our feet. We believe this is thanks to its upper overlays and reinforcements, as well as its padding, as they didn't let our ankles play around much.

This translated into feeling confident and safe on the court, which is honestly something priceless! It made us go for more aggressive moves, as this shoe wasn't that quick for us to try very fast footwork.

In our opinion, the Fresh Foam BB v2 is a great pair for centres and players who post-play a lot. It might not be the best for guards who create openings through dribble penetration, but we believe it suits hoopers who usually play closer to the zone.

The tough upper materials aren't the only ones that offer such wonderful support. The Fresh Foam BB v2 features really high rubberized lateral walls that held our feet in place during our games.

When we took this shoe to our lab, we could clearly see it when we performed our torsional rigidity test. Do you want to see our fingers struggle for 6 seconds straight? Well then, here we go.

Just look at that, we couldn't bend this New Balance even if we tried our hardest! Consequently, we've decided to give it a well-deserved 5/5 on our torsional rigidity test.

We also tried to push and bend the heel counter of the Fresh Foam BB v2, and even though it wasn't as impossible as twisting its whole structure, we can't say it was pure play dough either.

As you can see, the sides and the top of the area of the Achilles obliged, nevertheless, from the middle part of the heel counter down, the material fought back a little bit more. Why? Well, it's because this shoe features a TPU external and internal heel counter. But this structure doesn't make it all the way up to the tip of the collar, it stays in the middle more or less.

We didn't experience any kind of heel slippage, and this structure makes the heel counter comfortable enough. In other words, it didn't hurt our Achilles at all, not even during our very first games!

After taking all this into account, we've decided to give this shoe a 3/5 on our heel counter stiffness test.

When we measured this shoe's midsole width in the forefoot and our calliper returned 114.4 mm, we realised it was pretty much average.

It's clearly not the widest landing base we've seen in our lab, but we didn't find it too narrow or unstable at all during our wear tests.

On the other hand, the midsole width in the heel is slightly higher than average at 92.3 mm.

We appreciated this, as it means the rearfoot gets some extra stability points! But it's not something that made a huge difference between this New Balance pair and other hoopers. We'd say it's more like a nice little touch than a game-changing feature.

Despite focusing on support and protection and even with its tough and stiff materials, the Fresh Foam BB v2 still needed less force than average to bend all the way up to 90 degrees.

The 35.1N it scored on our lab test translated into quite smooth transitions on the court. As this shoe is not the lightest out there, we found its flexibility really convenient.

Before we start talking about the real weight of this shoe, there's something we would like to clarify: the Fresh Foam BB v2 is not a fast hooper.

Its design and structure focus on being incredibly comfortable and protective, and after our own experience playing basketball with this pair, we can totally confirm it. It just doesn't feel quick on foot, and maybe guards with fast footwork will find it a bit too slow for their liking.

When we took it to our lab, the scale returned 14.1 oz/400g, which is already more than average. And we could feel this during our wear tests, that's for sure. Nevertheless, this weight didn't stop us or make our feet feel too tired.

The Fresh Foam BB v2 might not be as leg-saving as other lightweight hoopers, but as we mentioned before, it doesn't feel like the brand was specifically aiming for that. These kicks focus on making your feet comfy and happy, so they're definitely not the fastest hoopers around.

This New Balance felt like a couple of mini-ovens in our feet during our wear tests. When we took it to our lab to see what was going on, we started by checking its upper against a light to see if it had any ventilation holes.

Well, there wasn't even one! The only place where we saw them was in the tongue. Should we ask our smoke machine if that's actually enough to let the air in and out?

Okay, that was... sad. The poor Fresh Foam BB v2 paled in comparison with the super breathable Curry 10. Not even a little bit of smoke came out, it just felt as if the New Balance pair literally just sighed at the very end of our test! That's why we gave the Curry 10 a perfect 5/5 and the Fresh Foam BB v2... just a 1/5 on our breathability test.

This shoe features a tight mesh upper with suede overlays that reinforce the whole structure. Even though you might associate the word "mesh" with breathability, trust us... this isn't the case!

In exchange for the breathability, this New Balance hooper did its best to protect its upper. And it succeeded!

We saw it fight bravely against our Dremel, and when we checked the damage dealt, we couldn't help but smile!

Just look at that! Even though we went for the weakest part of the shoe, it survived perfectly well. As you can see in the picture, there's a big suede overlay on the outside, which is basically what's going to be protecting not only your feet, but also the whole shoe from any damage.

Additionally, this gives structure to the hooper, enhancing its footlocking levels.

But we'll talk about that later on! For now, look at the shoe on the right. That's the Nike Precision 6 and its messed up upper. We could only give it a terrifying 1/5 on our toebox durability test. And after this comparison, you can probably understand why the Fresh Foam BB v2 got a fantastic 4/5 on this same test!

We expected the heel padding to follow the same path, and even though it was a bit weaker, we can't say we're unsatisfied with the result.

Our Dremel went all in once again but during 5 seconds, and the super plush heel of the Fresh Foam BB v2 did suffer a little bit.

The tool gave this shoe's heel padding some crazy morning hair, and it has scored a 3/5 on our durability test.

If we compare it with the Reebok Answer DMX and its 1/5 on this same test, that grade doesn't sound so bad any more, huh?

When our durometer returned 87.9 HC as soon as we pressed it against this shoe's outsole, we realised this softie had some tough sides to it!

This result is higher than average, which usually indicates the rubber compound used in the outsole focuses on being durable. Sometimes this means that grip stays as a secondary character.

Nevertheless, and without wanting to massively spoil anything, we want to tell you one thing: the Fresh Foam BB v2 is a traction BEAST.

Our Dremel had one last chance to redeem itself and show us how much of a shoe eater it can be.

Now at 10K RPM and with 3.2N of force, the tool attacked this New Balance's outsole during 22 seconds. We patiently waited, seeing how all the rubber dust accumulated right next to the dent.

And we were really happy with the result! Once we put the tool aside, we could barely see the damage on the outsole. When we measured it with our tread gauge, it returned 0.7 mm, which is a wonderful score!

This means the Fresh Faom BB v2 features a durable outsole that should be by your side for a long time.

As the rubber compound used in the outsole is pretty long-lasting, we didn't think the brand would go for a very chunky outsole. To verify this, we grabbed our calliper and measured it, once we had cut the shoe in half.

It returned 3.7 mm, which is lower than average. We totally agree with the brand's decision, as it helps reduce the overall shoe weight!

Substantial, constant, and strong. That's how we would describe this shoe's grip!

If you've read any of our reviews before, you know these adjectives don't come from pure conjecture. We put on these hoopers and play some basketball in them to tell you our personal experience!

In this case, the Fresh Foam BB v2 features a rubber outsole that we had already seen in the previous version (the Fresh Foam BB). Its circular patterns look like archery boards, and they bite relentlessly even on dusty courts.

We were really happy with this shoe's traction, as its multidirectional design offered us great grip no matter which direction we took.

This hooper doesn't have any reflective elements at all!

We found this shoe's tongue padding enough to protect our feet from lace bite or any other kind of uncomfortable rub in our instep.

This is probably another measure New Balance took to reduce this hooper's overall weight, which is a much needed strategy!

The brand went for a non-gusseted tongue in the Fresh Foam BB v2. We were quite surprised, as the previous version featured a fully gusseted one!

But... its predecessor was also lighter (at 13.9 oz/394g), so we can understand why New Balance made this decision.

The Fresh Foam BB v2 doesn't have a heel tab, but as its tongue is non-gusseted, we had plenty of space to slide our feet on without any problems.

As expected from New Balance, the Fresh Foam BB v2 features a removable insole! In other words, you can change it whenever you need to.

As its heel says, it's a Fresh Foam insole. We found it incredibly comfortable, and even though all this bottom cushioning and softness didn't let us feel the court under our feet, if you prioritise impact protection, this is the shoe for you!

On the other hand, the midsole width in the heel is slightly higher than average at 92.3 mm.

We appreciated this, as it means the rearfoot gets some extra stability points! But it's not something that made a huge difference between this New Balance pair and other hoopers. We'd say it's more like a nice little touch than a game-changing feature.