New Balance is one of the few to challenge Vans’ reign as skate shoe king with impressively slick sneakers as stylish as its more famous styles. New Balance’s 480 gets all the love but the 417 skate sneaker is a worthy follow-up.
Case in point: Franky Villani’s New Balance 417 signature shoe, now available in low-top version.
Personable young pro skater Villani has been rocking a mid-top New Balance Numeric 417 for some time but it’s about time he upgraded his bespoke sneaker to a sleeker shape (or is that downgraded?).
The result is a beautiful shoe that crosses over from skate wear to genuinely stylish.
Villani’s New Balance Numeric 417 Low is fitted with a classic vulcanized sole unit (naturally, herringbone pattern underneath) and layered upper reinforced with triple-stacked security in what Vans calls “high-wear areas.”
So, despite the streamlined low-profile of these impressively handsome shoes, they ought to last even longer than some of the more conventional skate sneakers.
Not bad for what’re quite literally $80 shoes. Oh, and they’re available in a crisp white colorway if the understated burgundy isn’t to taste (though it should be).
New Balance Numeric is quietly surging as hard as Vans, offering a plethora of wildly cool skate shoes that have hit surprising virality in 2024 due to ample impressive colorways and slick, wearable shapes.
The NB Numeric 480 gets most of the love, again, but the 417 deserves some love, too, especially in this more wearable low-top variant.
It’s even flatter than its more popular peer, for instance — how timely! — and colorways like Villani’s give it the sense of style it’s always deserved.