New Balance Dress the 992 in Familiar Textures
The revival continues, with a new colourway that sees some familiar textures from other sneaker genres appear on the mid-2000s flagship runner. While sticking to a fairly typical grey and black colour scheme is par the course for the model, as is the leather and mesh combo, the mudguard brings the X factor.
At a distance, these 992s simply look like a black-uppered pair with grey mudguards. A closer look confirms this to be the case, but there is more depth than that. The black overlays appear to be smooth leather or synthetic, which is paired to tonal net mesh in the usual places. But it’s the mudguard that switches things up by using an unorthodox texture – at least for NB anyway. Let’s call it ‘Elephant Skin’, due to its heavily tumbled appearance which, by the way, is a bit more of a common sight on basketball shoes from the late 1980s.
However, this is far from the first time New Balance have brought in elements reminiscent of other sneakers. All the way back in 2003, UK retailer Offspring designed a 577 colourway that was very much Safari-inspired.
This New Balance 992 is available now for preorder from , with delivery expected in mid-October.