You've Seen JJJJound's Elegant New Balance Dad Shoe Before (But Not Really)
JJJJound's New Balance sneaker collaborations are perpetually elderly and rather ordinary. They're also impossible to purchase at retail as the company's footwear-obsessed fans always snap them up but quick.
So, though JJJJound's New Balance 993 shoe sure looks like a conventional New Balance 993, it's gonna sell out with the speed of a red-hot limited-edition Nike.
JJJJound first revealed its New Balance 993 sneaker in the campaign imagery for its Fall/Winter 2024 Levi's collaboration, which itself looks terribly Steve Jobs-coded.
We're talking plaid shirts, trim denim jeans, and lots of chunky New Balance dad shoes.
Most interestingly, in one shot, the model wore a pair of unique brown New Balance 993 shoes with a black sole with his slim grey jeans and horse T-shirt from JJJJound's second Levi's collab.
The NB 993 sneaker wasn't initially confirmed to be releasing or even an actual JJJJound collab, for that matter, but it sure did look like a lot of JJJJound and New Balance's prior shoe team-ups, which are consistently brown and consistently elderly.
And, what with the relative dearth of JJJJound New Balance sneakers releasing this year — though some potential next looks have been floating around, the pair released only a single shoe in 2024 — the timing would've be right for winter 2024.
Indeed, on January 13, JJJJound confirmed a similar (but not identical) brownish "Mushroom" New Balance sneaker — note the lack of black sole — which will release on JJJJound's website on January 16 and "New Balance Global Channels" come January 17.
In the wake of JJJJound's sublime adidas Samba, you'd have been forgiven that the ultra-simple Montreal-based company's streak of absurdly understated collabs might be ending (or at least subsiding).
But, with its extremely uncomplicated New Balance 993 shoe actually releasing in early 2025, JJJJound is clearly still up to its old tricks. Not that the fans are complaining.
