New Balance 9060 Driftwood Castlerock

Released on 14 November 2023 and part of New Balance's 9060 line. This release has a suede upper in Driftwood/Mindful Grey/Castlerock. Driftwood and Castlerock is a colourway built from names for weathered things, a pale washed-out beige against a heavy grey, and it gives the 9060 the look of an object shaped by use rather than by design. That reading suits the model, which takes the 99x running family, the line that begins with the 990 in 1982 and runs to the 990v6, and warps its geometry into something curvier and stranger. New Balance can afford to be odd here because the archive underneath is unimpeachable. The company has been privately held since Jim Davis bought it in 1972, when it had six employees making about thirty pairs a day.