New Balance: from Boston arch supports to running jackets

Some sportswear brands were built on marketing. New Balance was built on feet. For more than a century the Boston company has made shoes with an almost stubborn focus on fit and comfort, and that same practical thinking now runs through its outerwear. This season New Balance is back at ANSH46 with two jackets: one for the cold, one for the run.

Boston, 1906: arch supports first

The story begins in 1906, when William J. Riley, an English immigrant living in Boston, founded the New Balance Arch Support Company. Riley was not making sneakers. He made arch supports and corrective footwear for people who spent long days on their feet, with the aim of improving balance and comfort.

The brand likes to tell how Riley found his inspiration: watching chickens in his backyard, he noticed how steady they stood on their three-pronged feet, and set out to give people that same sense of balance. Whether you take the story literally or not, it captures the idea the company still sells today: a shoe should start from the foot, not the other way around.

From orthopaedics to running

For decades New Balance stayed a small, specialised business. That changed in 1960 with the Trackster, a running shoe with a rippled sole that was offered in multiple widths. Width sizing was unusual in sports footwear at the time, and it became a New Balance signature that the brand still holds on to.

In 1972 the company was bought by Jim Davis, on the day of the Boston Marathon. New Balance then employed only a handful of people. Under Davis it grew into one of the largest athletic brands in the world, while staying privately owned, a position the company sums up in its own slogan: Fearlessly Independent.

The numbers that became icons

New Balance names its shoes with numbers rather than slogans, and several of those numbers have become part of fashion history:

• 990: launched in 1982 as the first running shoe to cost $100, a bold price at the time and a statement about quality.
• 574: introduced in 1988, it grew into one of the most recognisable New Balance silhouettes worldwide.
• 550: a basketball shoe from 1989 that disappeared for decades, until a 2020 revival with Aimé Leon Dore turned it into one of the most talked-about sneakers of the moment.

That Aimé Leon Dore link went further. In 2021 the label's founder, Teddy Santis, became creative director of New Balance's Made in USA line, bringing a fashion eye to the brand's most heritage-driven collection.

Still made in the USA and the UK

Where many sportswear brands moved production entirely overseas, New Balance kept part of it close to home. The company still runs factories in New England and in Flimby, in the north of England, where its Made in USA and Made in UK models are produced. Those lines are a big part of why the brand has such a loyal following among people who care about how things are made.

New Balance at ANSH46

Our current New Balance selection is about outerwear, with two jackets that take the brand's practical approach into the colder months:

• Boston Puffer Jacket in Black, a padded puffer jacket for cold days that shares its name with the city where New Balance began.
• Fast Days Jacket in Streamsong, a lightweight full-zip running jacket in a soft blue, made to be thrown on for a run or a cold morning commute.

Both are available in very limited sizes, so it is worth being quick.

How to wear it

The Boston Puffer works as an everyday winter layer. Wear it over a heavyweight hoodie with straight-leg denim and a pair of grey runners for an easy weekend look, or over a knit and wide trousers when you want the jacket to do the work. Black keeps it simple, so it fits with almost anything already in your wardrobe.

The Fast Days Jacket is lighter and more technical. On the run, wear it over a long sleeve with shorts or tights. Off the track, the Streamsong blue looks good with washed black jeans, a white tee and a pair of trail or tech runners, which suits the current crossover between running gear and streetwear.

From arch supports in 1906 to running jackets today, New Balance has always started with the same question: does it actually work for the person wearing it? The answer is why the brand keeps finding a place in fashion.

Shop the New Balance collection online, or visit our store on the Van Oldenbarneveltstraat in Rotterdam. For more running heritage, read our stories on Saucony and Puma.