Concept Cars and Retro-Futurism: How Charlotte Lee Brought the New Balance XC-72 to Life

When footwear designer Charlotte Lee first joined New Balance, she didnâ€t own a single sneaker from the Boston running brand. And to her, that unfamiliarity is an advantage. The UK-based designer started as an intern in late 2014, working her way up through womens’ and kids’ models and eventually stepping into the spotlight with her own original silhouettes. 

Lee is the designer behind the New Balance 327, which made its debut in 2020 through a collaboration with Parisian-Moroccan luxury brand Casablanca. The 327 has since been released in a bevy of colorways, as well as collaborations with brands like Todd Snyder, Concepts, and STAUD. 

Although New Balanceâ€s history and archive can be daunting at times, her raw perspective of the brand pushes her designs forward. 

“I think thereâ€s a lot of people who would love to work at New Balance and their wealth of knowledge is so much greater than mine,” Lee said. “And I personally feel like thatâ€s a disadvantage. Because when you love something so much, you cannot see outside that box.” 

“I canâ€t come to a meeting and tell you every shoe that New Balance ever created, but I can come to a meeting with an idea thatâ€s fresh, and then we can see what works with that in the archive and how it feels very New Balance in its aesthetic.” 

The 327 and Leeâ€s 237 captured that sentiment in full stride, working modern adaptations of New Balanceâ€s running-inspired lineage into a contemporary, lifestyle-based silhouette. And with the New Balance XC-72, Leeâ€s newest silhouette, which has been over a year in the making, she hopes to capture the hearts of sneakerheads and New Balance fans alike. 

New Balance XC-72

“The XC-72 is like the epitome of a lockdown baby,” she explains. “March, April 2020 was the main creation phase of the design. That was a weird experience because normally, in the design process, youâ€re bouncing off people, youâ€ll have people involved.” 

Lee references her manager Sam Piece, who she describes as one of the most inspirational archival individuals at the brand, with a wealth of New Balance history. 

“I had to pester him on calls, but it was weird being in my own little bubble creating this shoe and having virtual check-ins for the first time. Obviously, itâ€s something Iâ€ve become very accustomed to now, but while creating that shoe, it felt very much on my own,” she said.

Similar to the New Balance 327 and 237, the XC-72 follows that familiar 1970s design ethos. What Lee was determined to do, however, was find a new angle to approach the design. Thatâ€s when a lesser-known model from New Balanceâ€s archive, called the Gator, came into play. 

“I think that New Balance, obviously, has got an amazing archive from the 70s, but a lot of it is quite similar,” Lee says. “So when I was looking back at the archive, I came across a shoe called the Gator. Itâ€s a New Balance running shoe, and it has this crazy outsole design —  actually the outsole design, the spiky part of the XC-72, itâ€s taken directly from the Gator.” 

New Balance Gator

Another source of inspiration that lends itself to the XC-72 is an old advertising campaign called “Three of the Best.” The campaign featured three similar New Balance shoes that catered to different elements of running by using different treads. It was an unfamiliar concept that forged the XC-72â€s unique outsole, which blends the outsole of the Gator, a traditional waffle outsole, and a “loading bar” in between. 

“It felt like the opposite of what weâ€d do now,” Lee explains. “We wouldnâ€t create the same shoe with slightly different treads; weâ€d offer something completely different on each version. And by taking those three outsole designs, it embodied that era.” 

As hinted by Casablanca, which describes the XC-72 as a “brand new silhouette inspired by the world of racing,” the silhouette also draws from concept cars and futuristic designs. For Lee, it meant taking a look not just at New Balanceâ€s 1970s shoe archive but also at what the car industry looked like at the time. 

Casablanca x New Balance XC-72

“In the 70s, designers who worked on cars were creating concept cars,” she said. “They were showcasing what might be possible in the future and what cars might look like. I felt like the Gator, for New Balance, was almost like this concept car.” 

Inspiration from concept cars can also be seen on the XC-72â€s square toe design, retro-style racing tongue, and the “fast, futuristic” line going through the front of the shoe. All of these adjustments to the silhouette were described by Lee as trying to take familiar bits of the brandâ€s heritage and refreshing them to make them less familiar. The in-line silhouette also depends heavily on nylon and suede, which were heavily used in retro New Balance shoes. 

New Balance XC-72

“Itâ€s just like an embodiment of the materials you would have had in the 70s if you were creating a concept car, if I can refer to the XC-72 as a concept car,” Lee notes. “You wouldnâ€t have any new wave materials. You would have rubber; you would have suede; you would have nylon. And I wanted to make sure that the materials felt like theyâ€d come directly out of that designer in the 70s†toolbox. And I was using the same materials but interpreting them in a 2021 way.” 

As for the “loading bar” on the outsole, Lee says it draws on the idea of retro-futurism and “loading to a different era.” 

“Obviously, 70s and futurism don’t naturally go together, and that retro-futurism concept is what bound them together. When we were in the 70s, we were all looking towards whatâ€s next. And when I was looking at that, it was almost like this extreme scale, and I was thinking, ‘how can I create something that feels progressive and futuristic but grounded in New Balanceâ€s 70s DNAâ€.” 

And while the XC-72 introduces a lot of new design techniques, itâ€s also worth noting what was tested and ultimately left out. Lee notes that before opting for the oversized “N” logo, similar to that on the 327, she attempted to intertwine the “N” with the flying “NB.” 

Casablanca x New Balance XC-72

“I think for years and years, designers before me were shying away from the ‘N†logo,” she explains. “And I almost did the opposite by celebrating it. And I think by then, dumbing it down again and adding the flying ‘NB†on top or adding too many levels of detail was taking away from it.” 

But donâ€t be surprised if you see that on one of Leeâ€s future silhouettes. She notes that design features that are skipped or missed out in the process often inspire future projects. 

“Thereâ€s things on the XC-72 that I wasnâ€t able to include on the 327,” Lee says. “And that all happens going forward; things on the XC-72 that I couldnâ€t include or that I learned from will go into my next project. So thereâ€s a constant level of communication within the productâ€s story that Iâ€m creating.” 

And while she couldnâ€t share too many details around her next project, she did say that it would be her most challenging yet —  and one that wonâ€t likely follow the 70s ethos like her previous work. 

“Iâ€ve had three shoes in succession that were coming from the same series or coming from the same era. And this new projectâ€s going to be slightly different. But the thing Iâ€m continuing on is that fashion influence and that kind of contemporary look to New Balance, which is working so well for us.”

Parts of this interview have been edited for brevity and clarity.