Stone Island and New Balance have collaborated on a couple unusual sneakers thus far and they’re not getting any more normal for their Fall/Winter 2024 footwear team-up. Expect the elderly.
On August 29, Stone Island announced its next New Balance sneaker with three enigmatic teaser images showcasing a couple tough compact vans and little else.
However, in one photo, you can see a burly man pulling one of the cars forward, seemingly wearing his own pair of new Stone Island x New Balance shoes.
It’s hard to make the monochrome kicks out from the distance but, then again, don’t underestimate sneakerheads.
One commenter pointed out that the next-up Stone Island x New Balance sneakers look like a pair of 991v2 — quintessential dad shoes, you know — while others ruminated on how they almost look like 1500s, 992s, and 993s.
Either way, these appear to be real chunksters and they also appear to be grey and white.
The latter would be especially intriguing as it’d coincide with another recent dad shoe reveal: JJJJound’s New Balance 993.
Either way, these new kicks follow the legacy of Stone Island and New Balance shoe collabs, which previously ranged from a couple pairs of extremely normal 574 sneakers to the duo’s debut team-up, the surprisingly techy Fuelcell RC Elite.
It’s just that this new collaboration looks to be especially chunky and surprisingly old school, whereas the prior Stone Island NB shoes were either standard or utterly functional. Not that the Stoney believers would complain…
It’s all part of Stone Island’s recent unpredictable partnership streak, which has included timely high notes like bespoke gear for OVO-aligned basketball team Scarborough Shooting Stars and, of course, Stoney’s big-time menswear partnership with Kim Jones for the house of Dior.