Still image from Up There x New Balance 2002r 'Backyard Legends' promo video
It’s hard to overstate the grip New Balance has on the sneaker game in 2022. With a long-term focus on their manufacturing plants in the US and UK, New Balance has always had a reputation for quality and craftsmanship. We always kinda knew they were the best sneakers in the game, but … you couldn’t flex on anyone in a pair of New Balance. That was for the other brands. The big-name collabs. The high fashion crossovers. The retro models with decades of history and pop culture credentials.
Somewhere in the last few years though, a monumental shift has occurred. New Balance started to up the ante. The brand had always had a tendency to hit with collabs but, now? Now the hits were landing in a consistent rhythm. There were flurries of hits. Jabs, hooks and uppercuts. Tekken combos of collabs that came out of nowhere and left us looking like dizzy avatars stuck in the corner of the screen. The Joe Fresh 992s into the WTAPS 992s, then came the Aime Leon Dore 550s, the Casablanca 327s and the Salehe Bembury 2002rs – and that was just 2020. It was relentless.
The New Balance co-sign is now the most coveted in the game. The cache of collaborators has been masterfully curated by NB’s collab king Joe Grondin, and he isn’t giving just anyone a shot at putting their paws on a 2002R. After Joe Fresh, Teddy Santis, Salehe Bembury … who comes next? It’s time to flip the game upside down with a collab from the bottom of the map.
Australia’s very own Up There have got next. Granted a blank canvas in the form of a 2002R, the Melbourne-via-Brisbane boutique and brand stepped up and knocked this one out of the park – quite literally. This one is uniquely Australian, right down to the promo video featuring backyard cricket, Hills Hoists, beaches, bushland and one of those little clam pools every Australian has at some point in their life.
Hitting the pinnacle and nailing it with a New Balance collab. It could have been a moment to put Up There front and center, to cash out with a global release and try to get a look in a Jack Harlow video. But, instead, the team put Australia on their back – and their tongue. They’re taking us all with them and doing what they can to make sure we all get a pair.
Talking to Complex AU, Up There’s James Barrett explains that this one was 12 years in the making – and they did it for everyone who has supported the store in getting this far.
Complex AU: Up There has always been a great stockist of New Balance. It’s always the first place you would go to check for the new 990 releases, new NB collabs etc. I assume this collab came about because of that relationship you had with New Balance Australia?
Up There: That’s right. When we first opened the store, we were good friends with Ryan Jones who also moved down to Melbourne to work with New Balance. He was previously with another brand. So we kind of took advantage of that relationship, and got the New Balance account.
We actually launched the store with a Mita 580 so I mean, the relationship has been there since day one. And even before that we’ve always loved New Balance. We’ve been collecting sneakers since the early 2000s. So it was only natural for us to have [New Balance] as our first sneaker brand and the one that we’ve really been able to connect the closest with over the last 12 years.
Complex AU: It seems to me like this collab is kind of unique in the sense that there’s not really much of a story necessarily. It’s more just like a really great colorway.
Up There: The concept of it started with us wanting to extend the Blue Tab series that New Balance did years ago, which didn’t really end up going anywhere. They did a few collections and then it kind of just fizzled off. The idea of that collection was making technical running shoes look a bit more lifestyle-friendly. So people either wear them while running and not have to wear fluro-coloured running shoes, or they could wear them more casually.
The idea started off continuing that; making the 2002 a bit more techy, and then bringing in a colorway that could be associated with a more athletic-based shoe. Then from there we built in a lot of other details, but the actual backstory, the Backyard Legends story of the shoe did come after the fact.
Complex AU: So the Blue Tab thing is the inspiration for the shoe. Paying homage to the heritage of New Balance, but it’s not the kind of heritage that you normally see people talking about when it comes to New Balance.
Up There: Being the first collab we really wanted to subtly show that we do know New Balance. We have a history with New Balance. We appreciate everything they do, a lot of the heritage, a lot of the different models, which is why we brought back the Blue Tab series; brought back the shore laces, threw in some 990v3 details on the tongue and the N. Even the perforation on the heel tab matches the 990v3. We wanted to squeeze in a lot of these little hints and inspirations from other models that we’ve loved along the way.
Complex AU: Like you guys said in the press release – Easter eggs for the New Balance nerds
Up There: Pretty much, yeah. Without it being too much for the general New Balance fan. So they don’t feel like they need to know about all these details to like the shoe. We wanted to get that balance in there, which was fun.
Complex AU: You mentioned the tongue, and that’s the biggest talking point here; the Australia branding on the tongue. Was that a challenging thing to pull off?
Up There: It was actually Jason’s idea just to put the 990v3 embossed tongue detailing on the 2002. And then the discussion was around having the ‘USA’ on there but, well, it’s not made in USA. So, we’ll just put AUS on there and see what they say. We knew that they were gonna have to come up with custom tooling to do the tongue, to make [the 990v3 tongue] for the 2002. We thought even getting the diamond pattern done was a stretch.
So we thought we’ll just put the AUS on there and see what happens, and they loved it. They made the sample with it on there, and we decided not to make too much of a fuss or say anything much more about it. Every sample from there, we held our breath every time it was on its way. We were waiting for it to finally get pulled from the shoe. But they signed off on it and kept it on there.
Complex AU: It’s really good, man. That’s my favorite part of the shoe.
Up There: Definitely, it’s definitely our part of the collaboration. It’s a common thing for most collaborators, you’re not allowed to put your store or brand on the actual shoe. Like, you’re allowed to put it on the insole or on a shroud, for example. So I think being able to put the AUS on there is even better than getting to put Up There on it.
Complex AU: Finally, the New Balance collab is such a huge co-sign. You’re there with Salahe, Joe Fresh, jjjjound. How do you feel being able to Up There alongside those names?
Up There: It’s pretty surreal, to be honest. It’s something we’ve been pushing for for a decade. We’ve loved New Balance so much and done so much for the brand, and they’ve done so much for us as well. We’ve done a lot of special projects, we made the book back in the day and we’ve done a lot of cool releases. We’ve pretty much done everything except for a collab. Ourselves and our local New Balance guys have been pushing for it for so long, just getting the ticket means so much to us, but now the timing of it, having it released when New Balance is popping off as it is, and it has these other designers making such amazing collabs like Joe and the new Teddy Santis range, the Bodega one coming up, Paperboy over in Paris, being in the mix of that is pretty amazing.
Complex AU: Very special. Will there be a global release or is this exclusive to Up There?
Up There: Purely with us. If we wanted to go wider, it would’ve been the Asia-Pacific region. Australia, Japan, Korea, New Zealand kind of thing. But being the first one, we kind of liked the idea of keeping it tight.
Part of this really is we wanted to make it super exclusive with the release, make sure we’re gonna make the in-store release a big deal. We’re gonna make sure there’s plenty of pairs for everyone that comes on the day on Friday.
But even with leaking the shoe to the public, the first thing we did was put it in Sneaker Freaker magazine. In print rather than going digital, which was a throwback to how we used to find out about shoes in the early 2000s. We were aiming to give it a more special feel for the local guys; to show love to the domestic market that has shown us so much love over the last 12 years.
And then the online release gives a little bit more to the global market, but we’re really focusing on giving a very unique release compared to what’s usually done out there at the moment.
Sneakers have just gone so crazy that it would’ve been too easy to pump it and give it to every single store in Asia-Pacific. It’s a 2002, man. We could have sold tens of thousands of this thing potentially if we let it go to Tokyo and Korea and whatnot, but we just wanted to keep it special.
The Up There x New Balance ‘Backyard Legends’ M2002RUT drops exclusive to Up There on Friday July 15. Catch your pair in-store from 8am Friday and online from 8am Saturday July 16.
