Editorโs 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 โ relatively early in 2023 โ 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 cultureโs never-ending arms-race. But the reality of this privately owned footwear giantโs success โ now turning over US$5 billion in annual revenue โ is simple, and charmingly old-fashioned.
RELATED: The 13 Best โDad Shoesโ To Unlock Your Big Dad Energy
Before all the headline-grabbing financials and red-hot collabs of the 2020s, New Balanceโs personnel had been toiling for decades (in relative obscurity) to shore up local American factories. With its renewed focus on quality manufacturing, came the brandโs silver bullet.
It arrived in 1982 and was called the 990. Savvily marketed as the first running shoe to be โworn by supermodels in London and dads in Ohio.โ Four decades and six iterations later, the tagline hits harder than ever. Letโs face it: when your fan base covers the demographic delta between Timothรฉe Chalamet and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, you know youโre onto something.
The multi-generational appeal of the 990 โ and other silhouettes with a similarly rich heritage โ 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 Aimรฉ Leon Dore founder Teddy Santis, the release of the โTeddysโ shoe in 2020 rocketed the once obscure P550 silhouette to the forefront of internet hypedom.
Santis later signed on to direct the โMADE in USAโ 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.
RELATED: The Basic Rule Thatโs Helping Men Dress โTallerโ
None of these wins appear to have eroded the brandโs essential commitment: making sneakers fit for everybody. In contrast with athleisure giants Adidas and Nike, you wonโt come across slogans ordering shoppers, in shouty all-caps language, to โTAKE THE DEALโ or โJUST DO IT.โ
Instead, New Balanceโs latest campaign, aimed at the global running community, offers a radically chill suggestion to โRun Your Way.โ If youโre anything like us, that means five kilometres in a pair of 990V6s โ hopefully with a pint of Guinness at the finish.
If youโve enjoyed this feature story, consider a few of our other favourites โ including a few from the pages of BH Magazine:
