In his erstwhile guise as Creative Director of New Balance’s ‘Made in USA’ department, Teddy Santis (better known for his own New York lifestyle & apparel brand Aimé Leon Dore) has readied a follow-up to his inaugural footwear collection – this time built around an autumnal palette of drab olives, tans and navy.
Fittingly entitled ‘Season 2’, Santis’s latest romp with New Balance consists of three releases: each one a variation on the historic 990 silhouette. Originally released in 1982 – and conceived by New Balance to compete as “the single best running shoe on the market” – they’ve been been hit with a dose of Santis’s signature sport-chic flair – bound to perform excellently alongside a variety of layered, cosy looks from his own brand’s Fall/Winter 2022 collection.
The particular combination of ‘gray over tan’ hues on display here is also meant as a hat-tip to New Balance’s archive – with online sneakerheads already pointing out how each ‘Season 2’ 990 shares vague similarities with the popular ‘Made in England’ 576 collection.
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In line with previous positioning of New Balance’s ‘Made in the USA’ collabs, these co-designed releases are among the priciest (and most well-built) styles the brand has to offer. Uniformly priced at $350, around 70 percent of the value attributable to these 990s comes from American materials and labour – including details like local-made mesh and premium pig suede.
On a sliding scale, the 990v1 appears to be the most casual model in this upcoming drop, whereas the ‘v2 and ‘v3 adopt a more performance-orientated posture that matches up with the addition of tougher support systems (ABZORB and ENCAP respectively). A cursory poke around online retailers reveals these Santis-designed 990s have largely already sold out abroad, though determined shoppers down under will have another chance to cop later this month – when New Balance Australia is scheduled to release a handful of stock on 27 October. You can sign up to be notified at the link below.
