New Balance 9060 December Sky

Released on 15 June 2023 and part of New Balance's 9060 line. This release has a suede upper in December Sky/Sea Salt/Concrete. December Sky is a pale, cold blue grey, the colour of an overcast winter afternoon, and it is one of the few 9060 colourways that feels named for a mood rather than a material. The shoe itself is New Balance rebuilding its own 99x running line, the family that began with the 990 in 1982 and continued through the 991, 992, 993 and every revision after, then pushing the panels and the midsole out of proportion until nothing reads as a straight quotation. A washed out winter blue suits that treatment. It keeps the silhouette soft rather than aggressive, and it sits in the same faded register the brand has always used, where a colour looks like it has already been worn in.