FuelCell Rebel Trail: road-like pace even on the trails
WORDS → Emanuele Castiglione
Pics → Achille Mauri
DATE → 2026-06-12
New Balance brings the responsive attitude of the Rebel family to the trails. A lightweight and protective shoe that combines the drive of FuelCell foam with the security of Vibram grip.
There is a specific attitude that characterizes road runners looking for maximum responsiveness: the desire to push the pace without compromising on weight. When this same philosophy decides to leave the asphalt to venture beyond urban boundaries, something new is born. New Balance expands its off-road range with the new FuelCell Rebel Trail, a shoe designed for runners who want to tackle trails, mixed paths, and challenging terrain while maintaining an ideal balance between grip, support, and durability. Designed for those who experience running in nature as a continuous challenge between speed and control, this shoe brings the dynamic character of the famous Rebel family to the trails, enriching it with technical solutions specifically designed for off-road variables.
The beating heart of the model lies in the famous FuelCell foam, a compound designed to promote an energetic push and a fluid landing at every transition. The injection-molded midsole offers a decidedly lively ride, but it’s the geometric structure that makes the difference on more rugged terrain: the sidewalls have been made more structured to contain the foot, significantly improving lateral stability and the overall durability of the shoe even where stones and roots put the materials to the test.
To ensure that all this energy translates into safe forward motion, the lower section steps in, where New Balance has chosen not to compromise. The outsole is a full-length Vibram Megagrip, equipped with Traction Lug technology and 5 mm deep lugs. This combination was developed to offer rock-solid grip on technical surfaces, mountain trails, and mixed paths, becoming a key feature for athletes tackling steep climbs, technical descents, and continuous changes of pace in contexts where millimeter-perfect control of your stride is essential to avoid mistakes.
The protection and comfort of the upper go hand in hand with the technological innovation of the sole. The upper comes in a lightweight and breathable mesh, intelligently enriched with 3D-printed overlays that ensure structural support and great abrasion resistance at critical points, keeping the foot safe without weighing down the fit. Completing the containment package is the gusseted tongue, which ensures a stable midfoot lockdown and provides a pleasant feeling of security even during the most airborne and technical phases of the run. Available on the market from April, the FuelCell Rebel Trail is aimed directly at performance-oriented trail runners, skyrunners, and all enthusiasts looking for a tool capable of combining the responsiveness typical of fast footwear with the ruthless grip needed to dominate the most demanding off-road terrain.
But how do you test clothing that promises to work “anywhere, at any time of the year”? Montura has chosen an unprecedented path: bringing the mountain inside a laboratory. At the terraXcube in Bolzano, Eurac Research’s climate simulation center, it’s possible to reproduce extreme conditions: polar colds at -40 °C, desert heat at +60 °C, altitudes of 9,000 meters, snowstorms, torrential rains, and winds up to 100 km/h. A controlled environment where science and mountaineering meet. Here, athletes like Nives Meroi, Romano Benet, and Hervé Barmasse have worn Vertigo in conditions impossible to recreate elsewhere. Biometric sensors monitored their reactions: body temperature, heart rate, perspiration. It wasn’t just about trying on clothes, but scientifically measuring how humans and equipment respond together to the elements. Yet, the mountain cannot be confined to a room. That’s why, after the laboratory, Vertigo returned to its natural habitat: the walls, the ridges, the real storms. Barmasse completed the first solo winter traverse of all the main peaks of the Gran Sasso, while Meroi and Benet opened a new route in the Himalayas. Two different challenges, united by the same thread: testing a clothing system designed to withstand the limit.