Is This Deconstructed Dad Shoe New Balance's Next Protection Pack?
The New Balance 1906, an old-school running shoe turned in-demand sneaker, is about to receive a pretty dramatic makeover.
After being teased online earlier in the year, the New Balance 1906A is finally set to release and it reimagines the dad shoe into a deconstructed-looking design made to appear unfinished.
The busy sneaker includes exposed stitching, pieces of fabric left flapping in the wind, and raw, uneven edges — if you asked a designer to create a New Balance 1906 in pitch black, you could expect it to look something like this new release.
The purposefully imperfect sneaker embraces its shortcomings in a similar way to another collection from New Balance, the 2002r Refined Futures Pack.
Affectionately nicknamed the Protection Pack, this series of sneakers first debuted in 2021 and quickly became some of the most hyped sneakers of the year, selling out instantly and flooding Instagram feeds.
The New Balance 1906A follows the same formula as the protection pack: it takes a retro, chunky running model and covers it in jaggedy, imperfect paneling. However, it does take things one step further with big pieces of fabric left hanging from the shoe.
New Balance will be hoping that its newly deconstructed model will receive the same fanfare as its protection pack when it officially releases.
An early indicator that it could be a big hit is the reaction generated from a limited edition, customized version of the 1906A launched during Paris Fashion Week with the Californian streetwear label Basketcase which had fans calling for a wider, non-Paris-exclusive release.
And now, it looks like those calls have been answered as sneaker retailer AFEW has the same silver and beige colorway as the one created with Basketcase listed for release on July 24 (although, this one doesn’t include Basketcase’s safety-pinned branding).
This will likely be the first New Balance 1906A to hit the market, however, many other colorways including all-black and all-grey iterations have surfaced online and are expected to arrive later this summer.
After having broken the internet with the New Balance 1906 loafer hybrid, the Boston-based brand is ready to launch its latest inventive take on the 1906 sneaker.
