New Balance 9060 Triple Black Patent

Two recipes. Black wide leg trousers with a black knit is the intended reading, an all black outfit where the patent supplies the only shine and the silhouette supplies the only shape. Or grey tailored trousers with a black bomber, where the gloss reads as deliberate against matte wool. This is a night out, dinner and city shoe rather than a walking one, and it needs a hem wide enough to sit over the sole. Buy true to length and use the width fittings, since patent has almost no stretch and will not accommodate a wide foot. Wipe it with a soft damp cloth only, avoid brushes entirely, and store it away from anything that can press a mark into the finish.

A gloss black New Balance is a good test of how far this brand has travelled. Its authority was built on 99x running shoes bought for comfort, a company that stayed privately held under Jim Davis from 1972, and factories in New England and at Flimby that its rivals gave up. None of that predicts a patent finish. What made it possible was the 2010s, when high fashion adopted these silhouettes wholesale and the shape itself became the thing people were buying, colour and material now free to move wherever the wardrobe wanted them. This is the version you wear at night, and the brand no longer needs to explain it.

Patent behaves differently to every other finish here. It reflects rather than absorbs, so the 9060's sculpted side wall and stacked overlays are described entirely by highlights, which makes the shape look larger and more liquid than a matte black version. It also resists water and dirt better than suede or mesh, but it scuffs in a way that shows as a dull grey line rather than as a scratch, and those marks are permanent on a glossy surface. Underneath, the house has separated structural support from shock absorption since ENCAP arrived with the 995 in 1986, a polyurethane rim around a soft foam core. Expect weight, expect stability, and expect a stiffer break in than a soft upper gives.