End of an Era.

Many years ago (I don't even know how many, but it was more than 6) I was in the downtown Seattle and went into the Nike store. They had on sale a pair of black and yellow Nike free 3.0. I bought them and they have been my general training shoe since. As of last Friday they have been officially retired.
Last fall I went to several local running stores and tried all of the latest in minimal shoes (the Frees were understandably coming apart at the seams) but since I wear minimal footwear all the time my feet are very spread out and wide at the toe box. I couldn't get some of the shoes in question on at all. I was pretty concerned. When my frees finally gave out, I could have realistically been unable to replace them. Which would either mean wearing shoes that were significantly too long to make up for the width (which would have been a problem) or trying to use a "non athletic shoe" like a pair of Sanuks (which I cannot recommend enough for every day wear) for running hills and the like.. neither would have worked out very well.
Thankfully, New Balance has released their Minimus shoe in EE (extra wide). They are to my knowledge the only company to do so with their "barefoot type" shoes. So I rewarded them by buying a pair. They're great. They have an even lower profile than my frees. Still very light-weight and pretty comfortable. They will need a little breaking in, and the surface is a little slick indoors, but overall I could not be happier.
Mahalo.