As seen on Unboxed Issue 49. The Unboxed newsletter covers the most important stories of the week across sneakers, sports, and fashion straight to your inbox on Mondays.
It’s rare that the initial hype behind a new or newly reintroduced silhouette can trickle down to inline or general release (GR) colorways, but the New Balance 550 is showing no signs of slowing down. The latest colorway to catch the attention of the internet caught me off guard.
Admittingly, I was not expecting an early 90s basketball sneaker that wasn’t made by Nike, Inc. to look good in the unmistakable UNC light blue. (Shout out to UNC legend and former NB signature athlete “Big Game” James Worthy, though.) Since it was first slapped on basketball shoes in the 1980s, it almost feels as if baby blue hues could only be used by Nike and Jordan Brand. It was Michael Jordan and his sneakers who helped turn the University of North Carolina into a household name beyond college hoops fans.
But the 550 arrived (again) during a time where 80s and early 90s retro basketball popularity is at an all-time high thanks to even more increased hype on Nike Dunks, Air Force 1s, and Air Jordan 1s in all cuts. And with sneakers becoming increasingly difficult to buy for retail, the 550’s friendly price tag and consistent availability has made it a hit. In the past, brands seemingly copying colorways made famous by other brands might have been frowned upon but in the anything-goes climate of 2021 sneaker culture, it looks like those kinds of moves are free game now. And surprisingly, I’m not mad at it.
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