What do Shohei Ohtani, Francisco Lindor, and I have in common?

Well in addition to being world class athletes, we all wear New Balance on our feet.

That there, pictured at the left, is the New Balance store at New Balance headquarters in Brighton, Massachusetts.

I went there for the first time last summer.

You may or may not know I was training for the New York City Marathon and I didn’t have the right sneakers.

ASICS stopped making the sneakers I ran my first couple of marathons in that I loved, and I tried to love a couple of other ASICS makes in the same way and just never found a connection. (And I also maybe hurt my foot as a result.)

So I figured I should try a fitting at New Balance, since it was an easy drive away and maybe they had a comparable sneaker to the one I loved.

Turns out, the 1080v13 were pretty comparable.

I bought the black pair you see pictured at the right last July, and after successful test runs I bought a second, blue pair.

The black felt way better for me and I ended up wearing them for the marathon, and I have continued wearing them as I do my 5K training. (The blue ones are now my walking-around sneakers.)

I don’t honestly know if there’s any actual difference between the black and the blue, but I love the black so I’m sticking with them all the way.

I went to New Balance on Monday to try to get another pair…and they have moved on to the 1080v14s.

BUT there’s an outlet store down the street from the new store and big headquarters and they said they had a v13 in my size (a size 14, if you’re keeping score at home).

They were white, but the guy said they can order from any outlet store anywhere and he found black and I ordered two pairs.

Because they’re out of date, they were cheaper - I got two pairs for cheaper than the original pair I bought.

I already received an e-mail that said they shipped.

I’ll break them in over the summer and make a decision about which pair to wear for the Chicago Marathon.

And after that I may have to graduate to the v14s.

The guy at New Balance said the 14s are slightly less cushioned, so I’m not sure what to expect. My feet like cushioning.

BUT maybe I’ll head back to the outlet store and see if they have a few more pairs of black v13s that I can stock up on and kick the new sneaker can down the road a few more years.

It should be noted that buying these sneakers and driving around that area of Boston got me very excited for summer training. I am ready to run outdoors and start building up the miles again.