New Balance is taking dad shoes to the trails. In a sense. The New Balance Fresh Foam X Hierro v9 is the dad shoe purveyor's lifted take on a trail-ready shoe.

For good reason, New Balance is stylistically synonymous with dad shoes. But there is nothing elderly about New Balance's Fresh Foam X Hierro v9 sneaker. In fact, everything about this trail sneaker screams spry.

From the curved and lifted outsole to the soft mesh upper, the sneaker is the antithesis to whatever associations we have with dad shoes. It's aerodynamic, tech-tastic, and built more for on-trail action than leisurely strolls.

New Balance's Fresh Foam X Hierro v9, available on the New Balance website for $160, may not be top-of-mind when it comes to NB sneakers, but the king of dad shoes does get busy when it comes to an active shoe.

There's the suede Fresh Foam x 1080 v13, designed for running and also the beefy FuelCell SuperComp Elite v4. Both of these sneakers are sporty testaments to New Balance's peripheral dominance in the world of performance-focused sneakers. All of these sneakers share a similarly beefed-up quintessence that effortlessly signals elevated performance. 

From Hoka to adidas to New Balance, performance sneakers all share extremely beefy outsoles that look made for serious treks and trails. It's like an athletic dog whistle, if you will.

The Fresh Foam X Hierro v9 isn't a dad shoe in the traditional sense, but there is something familial about the way it fits in with the sporty shoe genre as a whole.

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