New Balance’s Most Iconic Dad Shoe Loses Its Logo
Mfpen's stripped-down New Balance 992 sneaker is classic dad shoe excellence at its best.
New Balance is erasing its dad shoe legacy, well, part of it anyway.
In collaboration with Copenhagen-based menswear brand Mfpen, New Balance has stripped Steve Jobs' favorite dad shoe of all its glory, and the results are curiously sublime. Dad shoe heaven reaches its zenith with the New Balance 992, the paragon of elderly dad shoes.
With its humdrum symphony of grayscale mesh and suede, clunky dad shoe profile, and unobtrusive disposition, the 992 crawled its way from mid-aughts obscurity and onto the feet of some of fashion's finest. Like, a one Steve Jobs who couldn't get enough of the blissfully bland sneaker.
Yes, Mr. Jobs was a fashion icon, and he had the Issey Miyake catalog to back it up.
Now as New Balance's hero dad shoe turns 20, Mfpen is stripping it down even more.
It can be hard to justify taking anything away from such an already toned-down sneaker. But by removing the signature "N" logo that occupies the midfoot of just about every iteration of New Balance's 992, Mfpen gives the sneaker a higher-fashion composition.
Where the classic "N" logo should be, there's just a faint shadow of an "N" that kinda looks like someone ripped the logo off by hand. Artisanal! This branded absence gives the sneaker a runway-esque aura that's delightfully reminiscent of the big, bold Balenciaga sneaker era that dominated the better part of the mid-2010s. And when you think about it, it is about time for 2016 fashion trends to make their first decennial orbit.
In that, Mfpen's pared-down 992, despite being 20 years old, is still delightfully of the times.
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