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- Upper
- Leather
- Gender
- Unisex
- Released
- 2021
NEW BALANCE 550 YOUTH BB
NEW BALANCE 550 YOUTH BB
- Upper
- Leather
- Gender
- Unisex
- Released
- 2021
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Culture Note™
Released on 24 June 2021 and part of New Balance's 550 line. This release has a leather upper in White/Green. This is the 550 built for younger feet, and there is a straight line from that to how the company started. New Balance was founded in 1906 near Boston as the New Balance Arch Support Company, making arch supports rather than shoes, because the founding problem was orthopaedic: how do you give a foot the support it does not naturally have. Growing feet are the version of that problem nobody outgrows quickly. The 550 itself is a basketball silhouette from the archive that came back to become the brand's everyday low top, so the youth build takes a court shoe already worn as daily footwear and sizes it for the people who wear shoes hardest.
For a youth court shoe, buy for width first and length second. First recipe: straight leg jeans with a plain hoodie and white socks, the classic school and weekend uniform the 550 was made for. Second: black track pants with a tee for sports days and travel, where a leather upper survives being scuffed. Leave roughly a thumb width at the toe for growth but never buy a size up to make it last, since a loose court shoe rolls the ankle. Wipe the leather with a damp cloth after use, clean the midsole with a soft brush before marks set, and air them out fully between wears.
New Balance's cultural life has been mostly accidental, which is why its shoes cross generations without effort. The 990 family became the archetypal American dad shoe, worn for comfort rather than status, documented on Steve Jobs, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner and Hilary Duff, and that plainness was reclaimed by normcore and then high fashion in the 2010s. The 550 rode back in on the reappraisal and became the low top everybody wore. The basketball connection is genuine rather than decorative, since New Balance sponsors the NBA and signed Kawhi Leonard, whose OMN1S signature shoe launched in February 2019.
A leather court upper cut low, with the block N on a panelled side wall, a padded collar for ankle security and a wide rubber outsole for lateral grip. Basketball shoes are built flat and firm rather than plush, which is the right structure for a young foot that needs support more than cushioning, and it is why this breaks in rather than feeling soft on day one. Leather is also the practical choice at this size, since it wipes clean where mesh absorbs. New Balance's multiple width fittings, inherited directly from the arch support business, are the single most useful thing about buying this brand for a growing foot.
- Upper
- Leather
- Gender
- Unisex
- Released
- 2021
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