How New Balance Is Making Old Sneakers Cool Again

New Balance's Chris Davis talks about what the brand is doing to move into the future.

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Few companies have a stronger identity than New Balance, which was founded in Massachusetts in 1906. There are several recognizable traits from the sneaker manufacturer: 1. It names it sneakers after numbers 2. It still makes product in the USA and UK, and 3. A lot of the sneakers are plain and come in simple colorways such as grey and navy. That's the brand many people have grown up on, and its "classic" models have become mainstays because they haven't changed over the years, or just ever so slightly. 

That's coming to an end, though. No, don't worry, New Balance is not ceasing production on the 996, 1500, and 997. But some of those silhouettes are getting a new spin, and it's pushing the brand forward, thanks to "Re-Engineered" and "Deconstructed" takes on the sneakers.

To get a better understanding of what this means for New Balance, I had a conversation with the brand's General Product Manager, Chris Davis, and he explained not only why the company is moving in this direction, but also what sneakers to expect in the future.

How did New Balance make the decision to go in this direction?
Over the past four or five years our brand has been at an all-time high in the lifestyle and running classics realm, especially in the Asian and European markets. We really wanted to establish something new in the marketplace, and there are going to be a bunch of products releasing that marry our heritage and running innovation. The company has been really supportive and dedicated to creating this new business unit, because we know that classics are a trend. We want to stay on the forefront of what’s going on in contemporary times. 

How did you make the decision on which uppers you were going to put together with new tooling units?
We have a global team, so we have product managers from all over the world —  in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Manchester, Boston, and Long Beach  — contributing to this effort. We took styles that are authentic to each region and identified which ones would have the best impact from a sneaker culture perspective. The 1500 is a really iconic style in the UK and other parts of Europe, and we wanted to play with that upper because it has so much to do with New Balance as a whole. Same with the 996. In Asia, the 996's our second or third biggest shoe depending on the year, and that's why we decided to try the Deconstructed and Re-Engineered 996s.

For sure.
It’s a mixture of what we felt looks great, what we felt was iconic, and which models we could reinvigorate and take to the next level.

A lot of people look to New Balance for a lot of the collaborations. Do you ever see the brand getting stores to do projects with these newer silhouettes, or is it more of doing the heritage sneakers?
We will absolutely be having a wide variety of collaborations with all these new silhouettes, ranging from July 2015 all the way to January 2017. Other brands and boutiques have really gravitated to these new styles and have asked to do collaborations on them. We’ve been know for heritage in running and performance running, and taking those two points and blending them together has really captivated those accounts. This July, we’ll be launching the Deconstructed 1500 with size?, and we have two collaborations together. We have a series of collaborations that go throughout 2016.​

You have rolled things out, but do you think this is a long-term project for the company?
This is definitely a long-term vision. We have some of our most talented product managers on this category. We’ve already rolled out plans through 2018 and 2019, and it’s definitely going to be a huge part of our future moving forward. It’s a new generation of products that will continue to evolve and nurture over the next few years.

Do you see the brand shifting its focus away from the classics a little bit, or is that always going to stay?
Classics is always going to be our bread and butter. This is an incremental focus. We know that classic is who we are, but all these new executions are really going to help classics. It’s going to give people a different outlook on some of their favorite New Balance styles. A lot of these silhouettes are the same silhouettes as the classics, but they use new materials and new foams.

Do you guys see yourself doing any of the Made in USA or Made in UK manufacturing on these?
Yeah, that’s for the future. We definitely will have new takes with Made in USA and Made in UK construction, which we’re pretty excited about.

 

Matt Welty is a News Editor at Complex. Follow him on Twitter here.