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- Upper
- Suede
- Released
- 2023
- Colourway
- Slate Grey
- Cushioning
- Abzorb
New Balance 2002R Protection Pack - Slate Grey
New Balance 2002R Protection Pack - Slate Grey
- Upper
- Suede
- Released
- 2023
- Colourway
- Slate Grey
- Cushioning
- Abzorb
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Culture Note™
Released on 3 April 2023 and part of New Balance's 2002R line. This release has a suede upper in Slate Grey/Brighton Grey/Reflection. The 2002R descends from the era when New Balance was engineering top tier runners with the same care it gave the 99x line, and the R version is that shoe rebuilt for pavements rather than for mileage. The Protection Pack is the treatment that made it famous, an upper deliberately finished to look weathered and stripped rather than showroom fresh, as if the shoe had already lived a life before you bought it. In Slate Grey that idea lands hardest, because grey is the colour the brand is identified with, the shade that turned its running shoes into the archetypal American dad shoe. Distressing the brand's own signature colour is a confident thing for a company this unshowy to do.
Slate grey is a cool neutral, so build cool around it. First recipe: black straight leg denim, a grey hoodie and a black shell jacket, the distressed upper adding the only texture in the fit. Second: charcoal wool trousers with a navy knit, where the shoe keeps a smart outfit from tipping formal. Wear it as a travel and long walking shoe rather than a standing shoe, since the ABZORB ride is soft rather than planted. Take the correct width fitting. Brush the suede dry with a crepe block, keep mesh and suede out of heavy rain because both absorb water quickly, and let them dry away from direct heat so the midsole does not distort.
Grey New Balance is the most quietly loaded object in the brand's cupboard. The 990 family became the archetypal American dad shoe, worn for comfort rather than status, and Steve Jobs was a documented wearer, as were Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner and Hilary Duff. That plainness was reclaimed as a design position in the 2010s, and the 2002R inherits the reclaimed version rather than the original. The Protection Pack sits at the fashion end of the trade, where the archive is treated as a design language. New Balance formalised that posture when it appointed Aime Leon Dore founder Teddy Santis creative director of Made in USA in April 2021.
An engineered mesh upper with suede and synthetic overlays in slate grey, layered so the panels read as separate planes and the block N sits within the structure rather than on top of it. New Balance runs ABZORB under this platform, its proprietary foam and rubber polymer blend, built to disperse heel strike impact before it reaches the knees and hips. ABZORB is lighter and plusher than the ENCAP polyurethane rim and EVA core that supports the 990 and 574, so the 2002R rides soft rather than locked down, which is why it works for a long day of walking and not for a tempo run. Buy the width fitting that matches your foot instead of adding length.
- Upper
- Suede
- Released
- 2023
- Colourway
- Slate Grey
- Cushioning
- Abzorb
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