One of the more horrid aspects of increased age is the impact on health. Once robust and invincible friends have started to crumble with age-related illnesses, so in order to get a teeny bit fitter and healthier, I’ve started to go to the gym… .and for the first time in nearly 25 years I’ve had to buy a pair of trainers.
BTW Is it just me or is it impossible to get anyone to go out with you on a Tuesday or Thursday now, due to these being preferred fasting days….that 5/2 diet is REALLY getting on my nerves. Getting older and wiser, you know with authority that diets are not a sane way to keep you healthy.
I hate trainers. I think they are ugly and the only time I EVER bought a pair -in the mid 80s – Jane Fonda was getting us all burned-out with her workout videos. Back then we were all forging fabulous careers while working stupid hours, only to come home and pound a treadmill at the gym in order to get the fabulous body to match! Health had nothing to do with it as I remember and trainers were always white.
Begrudgingly, I headed to Nike, where I was nearly blinded by neon on almost every pair. I bought the Nike Free (above) at £80, a pair so resolutely upbeat and cheerful that I can’t help but be smiley as I put them on. Although I still wouldn’t be seen dead outside of the gym in them, I quite like this day-glo highlighter colouring, which lifts my spirits as I trudge to my workout. I liked the Flyknit which we wrote about here, but it was twice the price and since I move very slowly I don’t really need any of the ‘high performance’ extras.
If I had waited until July, I would have been able to pick a pair made from neon lace-patterned fabric, because New Balance is introducing this rather lovely design, below, in the 890 series, in cracked pink or cracked orange. With rainbow laces too, incase the neon wasn’t enough colour for you. They are hippy-trippy trainers, for sure….
When did everything go so glow-in-the-dark bright? According to New Balance, it’s a trend that has seeped down from fashion catwalk influences, it even has a pair that glows in the dark for night time runs, see below, the 1400 racing shoe in grey or hi-viz yellow. But really I think it was seeing all those Nike highlighter-yellow feet moving so fast on all those Olympians last year….after that, speed=neon.
At the gym, the team of ridiculously enthusiastic 12 year olds that tell me how to use the machines (they all have degrees in sports science) say the big trainer trends are in neon or black. Black! there’s a fashion colour I can relate to…
If you are worried about the origin of your trainers (my Nike ones are made in Vietnam) then New Balance are proud of their Made in the UK label, including the resolutely British Tea Pack collection (style 576) in a slightly calmer English Breakfast chocolate brown, Peppermint green or Earl Grey, all made in Flimby, Cumbria.
Look out for the new New Balance styles when they launch in July, you can buy them from the website here. And keep healthy people.
Come on Amanda. We’re not fooled. You went to the gym so you could buy cool trainers, not the other way round…..
OMG… To my horror my other half announced with a nod and knowing look that he was going ‘trainer’ shopping last Saturday (what that means to the untrained eye is that he’s letting me know that these trainers won’t be for pounding the pavement….but I shall be seeing a lot more of them!!) whilst I took the kids to a party. Since he hit over 35 he hasn’t gone out of his way to purchase a pair of statement trainers as he once may have done, except of course his Asics for running in, which thank god don’t go down well with a pair of jeans at anytime of the day, even for by his standards. So you can understand my borderline (trying to reign it in) terror at the prospect of having to hang out with my man who still thinks he can cut the mustard and drop it like he’s 18 again. Low and behold he returned triumphantly with his new trainers (which happen to be a pair of New Balance) and sporting a cheeky smile.
I’m allergic to exercise (except yoga) so my trainers are about 10 years old, and resolutely white. Spouse is a Runner (capital R intended) so he has squillions of pairs of runners cluttering up the house, but all fairly muted – except for his racing ones which are bright orange. I call them his Halloween shoes :)