Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in Volume I of B.H. Magazine. For access to future issues, subscribe here.
Whether it was in front of your local publican, or at some painfully on-trend wine bar, there was a time — relatively early in 2023 — when one could barely move for the number of 574, 860, and 2002R silhouettes seen underfoot.
Among casual observers, the popularity of New Balance might appear to be the latest flashpoint in sneaker culture’s never-ending arms-race. But the reality of this privately owned footwear giant’s success — now turning over US$5 billion in annual revenue — is simple, and charmingly old-fashioned.
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Before all the headline-grabbing financials and red-hot collabs of the 2020s, New Balance’s personnel had been toiling for decades (in relative obscurity) to shore up local American factories. With its renewed focus on quality manufacturing, came the brand’s silver bullet.
It arrived in 1982 and was called the 990. Savvily marketed as the first running shoe to be “worn by supermodels in London and dads in Ohio.” Four decades and six iterations later, the tagline hits harder than ever. Let’s face it: when your fan base covers the demographic delta between Timothée Chalamet and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, you know you’re onto something.
The multi-generational appeal of the 990 — and other silhouettes with a similarly rich heritage — has enabled New Balance to turbo-charge its authentic image.
Under Chief Marketing Officer Chris Davis (whose father purchased New Balance in 1972) the company has become adept at partnering with the right brands and communicating its values, quite eloquently, to consumers.
Designed alongside Aimé Leon Dore founder Teddy Santis, the release of the ‘Teddys’ shoe in 2020 rocketed the once obscure P550 silhouette to the forefront of internet hypedom.
Santis later signed on to direct the ‘MADE in USA’ collection, his expansive role exemplifying just how desirable it has become for cutting-edge fashion labels (including JJJJound and Kith) to ally themselves with New Balance.
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None of these wins appear to have eroded the brand’s essential commitment: making sneakers fit for everybody. In contrast with athleisure giants Adidas and Nike, you won’t come across slogans ordering shoppers, in shouty all-caps language, to “TAKE THE DEAL” or “JUST DO IT.”
Instead, New Balance’s latest campaign, aimed at the global running community, offers a radically chill suggestion to “Run Your Way.” If you’re anything like us, that means five kilometres in a pair of 990V6s — hopefully with a pint of Guinness at the finish.
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