The New Balance 991 was only meant to be a running shoe. But in the early 2000s, a few fashionable Italians felt the sneaker’s clunky shape and high-end pigskin suede was deserving of more than chewing up miles. And after spotting attendees at Milan Fashion Week and Pitti Uomo flexing its newest running shoe as everyday footwear, New Balance was soon on the phone to its Flimby factory, which was tasked with creating lifestyle versions marketed almost exclusively to Italy’s creative class.

However, the small English factory can only create so many shoes a year, and as it shifted to meet alternative demands, the English-made 991 went out of circulation. But a quarter of a century later, New Balance’s 991v1 Made in UK is back and more Italian than ever. 

New Balance’s “Luxury Leather” 991v1 is the same retro runner that won hearts and feet in Italy 25 years ago but now built from top-grade vegetable-tanned leather. 

It shifts between light caramel and dark chocolate shades inspired by old luxury luggage, kinda like a Gucci trunk but in New Balance dad-shoe form. 

The original 991 lifestyle models were made in Flimby out of practicality — it was New Balance’s closest production site to Italy, meaning it was easiest to get the shoes transported quickly to those trend-conscious, 991-wearing Europeans. And to this day, the small coastal village remains the home of all 991s.

The 991v2, which appropriately debuted through a collaboration with an Italian label in Stone Island, is produced exclusively in Flimby, and once the Made in UK M991v1 drops on February 5, both generations of this New Balance classic will be made side-by-side for the first time.

And really, it’s all thanks to a bunch of forward-thinking Italians at the turn of the century.

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