When the hype machine was pushing the Asics Superblast 2 last year and it was near impossible to find a pair towards the end of the summer, a few other shoes started popping up in my social media feed, proposing to be an alternate “super-shoe” to the wildly popular Superblast 2.
Mizuno was not a company that I had much brand awareness of other than being a major player in the baseball equipment scene in my youth. After reading into the company’s history, I recall I had seen the Wave Rebellion Pro previously but had erroneously believed that the runner had lost the heel on his shoe at the time 🤣
Jumping at a back-to-school sale at Running Free, I managed to secure a pair of Neo Vistas and was not truly prepared for them. Up to this point, I had been running in various daily trainers without any real thought of cushion or rebound, outside of my race day shoes.
Design: The design of the Neo Vista is striking, with 44.5mm EVA-based Enerzy NXT foam in the heel and 36.5mm in the forefoot, creating a tall stature. It features a sock-like upper with integrated tongue and lengthy laces. Additionally, once flipped over, it features a cut-out down the centre of the midsole, showing a nylon plate for stability. This shoe does seem geared towards a midfoot strike pattern and also sports an aggressive forward rocker.
Fit: I opted to go down a half size (10.5) with the sock fit, though in hindsight, I should have stayed with my normal men’s size 11 (I’ll mention the reason below). The upper fit me well and truly does hug like a sock, as I use the tabs at the top to get them on every time.
Feel: Holy bounce Batman! It’s almost like a pogo stick. With the bounce and rebound that this shoe gives back, I had a hard time believing that this wasn’t a PEBA-based foam, as every other EVA-based foam shoe I’d ran in before absolutely did not provide even a fraction of the response found here. So much bounce!
Negatives: It’s not all roses though, as faster threshold/tempo paces were not something that I found I could do comfortably in the Neo Vista for two reasons. One being, with the huge stack, I found there was not enough stability to corner at pace and my foot would drift. Secondly, if I hit those paces for any distance in the shoe, my toes would take a beating and come away slightly bruised. In this, I should have stayed at my usual size 11 as it would have likely solved this issue.
Overall: The above notwithstanding, this shoe definitely still fits my other training paces, from recovery, group and base runs to my Sunday long runs. The Neo Vista shoe has consistently been one that throws up a smile on my face every single time I’ve laced it up. That bounce is addictive and truly so much fun, even as I get up into higher mileage. There are some midsole areas showing wear, though there are focused further towards the front of the shoe.
Going Forward: As my current pair has over 700kms logged at this point, and version 2 has just launched, I had to try them on and see if it retained the same magic for me. The unique look has been retained, and I understand the foam has even more response (closer to the Neo Zen), which felt even better than version 1 walking around in the store. Unfortunately, I could just not get the upper to have the same lockdown on my foot (trying up and down sizes), as the tongue felt as though it was bunching up below the laces.
At the end of the day, I opted to buy a second pair of version 1 for future use (in size 11, which have the same feel in the upper). I’m still running in my first pair however, as they still have the same bounce without any bottoming out at this point, or excessive wear on the tread.
That said, I may be looking at a pair of Neo Zen as well, once I burn through another pair of shoes in my rotation.
With sales currently on the Neo Vista version 1 as version 2 is finding it’s way to the shelves, I’d definitely recommend taking a look at both for a fun and durable trainer (as long as you have something else in rotation for “real” speedwork). Running Free has a great selection of Mizuno, so definitely check them out!
Left 700km wear / Right new
Left new / Right 700km wear
