New Balance 327 Miami Nights

Part of New Balance's 327 line. This release has a synthetic upper in Magnet/Dark Violet Glo. The 327 is New Balance reading its own 1970s racing shoes rather than reissuing them. Everything is exaggerated: the N stretched across the side wall and down onto the sole, the toe cut short, the outsole flared out at the heel like a cross country flat. That reference is earned, because the company's running credibility was built in exactly that world, from the Trackster of 1960 spreading through YMCA fitness programmes and college cross country teams at MIT, Tufts and Boston University. Miami Nights takes that vintage racing shape and colours it in nightlife pinks, teals and purples, which is a deliberate mismatch: a shoe designed for muddy grass, dressed for a warm city after dark.