If you're looking for a minimalist trail shoe...keep looking.  I had high hopes for these based on some other good reviews on the Internet, but honestly, I was disappointed with the product.  For one, they're very narrow and obviously not built along an anatomical last, so any long-term running (e.g., over about five miles at a time) will result in discomfort due to the inability of the shoe to let the foot splay naturally.  I tried running in my house wearing the NB XC900 on one foot and my old shoes (Inov-8s) on the other, and in minutes, the foot with the NB shoe started to hurt in the arch from the foot being unable to spread out. Not only were the laces annoyingly short, but the tongue tended to stab me in the upper foot no matter what I did, and even though I wore socks, it protruded over the top edge of the sock to stab me anyway.  Although the soles gripped on tile, they slipped on other surfaces, and I'd be genuinely leery of trying them on wet rocks or asphalt.  In short, I am really not sure what kind of running New Balance expects people to do in these shoes?