The New Balance "Dunk" Skate Shoe Is Strikingly Beautiful in Beige
New Balance's Numeric line is crushing the skate shoe game. Its sneakers have become the sneaker sleeper hit of summer 2024 because they're just so darn stylish. The reasonable price don't hurt, either.
Andrew Reynolds' remix of New Balance's 480 skate sneaker is only gonna keep the ball (or deck) rollin'.
Reynolds, a pro skater of nearly three decades and the nephew of actor Burt Reynolds (!), transformed the NB 480 into a wildly slick sneaker almost too good to be thrashed. Though, of course, thrashed it must be.
We've seen this ol' shoe in delicious suede hues that rival Nike SB's Dunk and appreciably muted tones that highlight its lightly chunky design but Reynolds took it to another level with one weird trick (doctors hate him!).
This new iteration of the New Balance 480, dropping July 29 on New Balance Numeric's web store for $99.99, is beautifully beige. 'nuff said, no?
Okay, well, it's not just that Reynolds remastered New Balance's masterfully slick skate shoe in delicious hues of sand atop a timelessly terrific gum sole, but that he also had it constructed of hardy leather, accented by tufted panels of suede.
Sharp stuff, especially for a shoe destined to be torn up by ollies, kickflips and other skateboarding tricks that I probably had Reynolds do in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, which featured Reynolds over a half-dozen times.
This is only the latest and greatest for NB Numeric, though.
We've witnessed tremendously skateable iterations of the 574 silhouette and fresh faces for the undersung 417 shoe, always yielding sneakers meant for the deck but deserving of daily rotation.
These are seriously stylish skate shoes that really can do it all.
It's not something I ever expected to say of the New Balance Numeric footwear line, itself part of the sportswear giant's dedicated skate brand.
Not that the prior Numeric drops were bad, mind you, but that they were never quite this good, not so exciting that we felt compelled to keep up with nearly every new drop.
The crux of the appeal is a series of deliciously approachable low-cut sneaker shapes made transcendent by sturdy fabrics and excellent colorways.
Think about the crossover, all-purpose appeal of Vans' most famous models: NB Numeric's latest footwear designs are tapping that same utilitarian appeal.
