WOMFT – New Balance 577SNS1 x SNS ‘First Round – Secret’

Sneakersnstuff have made some of my favourite shoes, both Peter and Erik definitely have a great eye for creating great colourways and pairing them with excellent materials. You can check out my New Balance x Sneakersnstuff history here if you wish to brush up on their collaborations.

The New Balance 577SNS1 x Sneakersnstuff dropped in 2005, and was meant to resemble the Swedish Flag, but as you can see, the blue is just a little off…. Anyway, there was a second take to get the colour right, a pair that I’m still trying to track down!

I’ve had this pair for a couple of years now, but have never gotten around to wearing them for some reason, until last night.

  
  

WOMFT – Onitsuka Tiger Colorado 85 x hanon shop ‘Wildcats II’

The Onitsuka Tiger Colorado 85 is a bit of a weird one, personally, I’m a fan of this model, but it’s had a mixed reaction whenever a collaboration has been released, and the general release pairs never done too well either. I guess Asics/Onitsuka Tiger expected this collaboration to be a winner after the success of the GLIII ‘Wildcats’, but when you introduce different models, the hype crew get confused and start wondering whether these at going to bring them the Instagram likes they so desire. You can be sure though that if this was a GLIII, captions of ‘instant cop’ would be reoccurring on social media.

You hear a lot of the same shit, for example, when hanon shop collaborated on the Gel Epirus most recently, you get the whole, “well if this had been on a GLIII or a Saga or a GLV or blah blah blah I would have ‘copped’…” Cool. Well, If Asics had got that Gel Epirus closer to the original shape then that would have at least made it more appealing, but that’s a different story altogether.

Anyway, before I stray too far off the shoe at hand, the Onitsuka Tiger Colorado 85 ‘Wildcats II’ is as the name describes, a second version of the 2011 release GLIII ‘Wildcat’, and is also hanon’s second time working on a Colorado 85… The first time they worked on a remake of the GTII ‘Northern LIItes’. I’m almost certain that when their GLIII for the 25th Anniversary releases, a Colorado 85 in that colourway will follow close behind.

WOMFT – Asics Gel Lyte III x hanon shop ‘Wildcats’

Back in 2011, hanon shop released the Asics Gel Lyte III ‘Wildcats’, a shoe which pays homage to a local grass roots running club called ‘The Wildcats’, and is one of my personal favourite shoes in my collection, despite the loud colour way clashing with all the grey, black and navy I wear (boring, tell me about it). The shoe features a mustard yellow and burgundy upper, of lush suede and nubuck, with 3M tiger stripes for good measure.

I don’t wear these much, and to be honest I sold most of my GLIII’s and other Asics when everyone was going mad for them, so this is only one of two GLIII’s that I have left, but these will never leave me. I still wish I had kept some of the other pairs of the Wildcats that I had, so I could wear these a bit more, but hindsight is a wonderful thing, eh?

Anyway, I remember the release for these, well, not the whole queuing outside on  Friday/Saturday release as I never went, but hanon had an event on the Thursday night prior to the release which involved good people, Japanese beer, and the chance to grab yourself a pair of the shoes before everyone else! I remember heading there with my friend Kev, it was quite quiet,  mostly older guys, friends of the store and that, but still good vibes. I imagine it would be massively different if hanon put on an event like that now, who knows, maybe they’ll do something in November when their take on the GLIII for its 25th Anniversary releases.

If there is, be sure to check back here for a full write up, there’ll definitely be a write up of the instore release anyway!

WOMFT – New Balance CT300PHA x hanon shop

I’m a huge fan of the CT300, and I grabbed all four pairs from the collaboration set with hanon, Firmament, SNS and 24 Kilates. They got quite a lot of wear for a bit last summer, until winter game and I put them away until next year. 

Well, the apparent Scottish summer is here, so I brought out the CT300PHA the other day, check out the shots below.

Looking forward to grabbing some new colourways of this model and maybe grabbing some CRT300’s too.

   

 

  

WOMFT – New Balance 1500FPK x FootPatrol ‘Encyclopaedia’

This pair of Made in UK New Balance 1500FPK, a collaboration between New Balance and FootPatrol London, has been getting quite a bit of wear in recent weeks, but never got around to grabbing any on-foot shots.

Actually, I think the only on-foot shot I’ve taken of these was when I returned from London after being at the Private Preview for the shoe. You can check out my write up for the event here.

 

WOMFT – New Balance 1500BGW

I got a new camera over the weekend, so that gave me an excuse to put on a new pair and head out to take some shots.. well, for my girlfriend to take them.

Anyway, nubuck and leather, that’s all that needs to be said here.

New Balance 997CGR and 997DCS

My love affair with the Made in USA New Balance 997 continues, and I was trying to hold off for as long as possible on buying these two new pairs, but when Leicester based store Wellgosh tagged me in a picture of them on Instagram, I just couldn’t help myself, I had to have them.

As well as the shoes arriving at my door in less than 24 hours, the good people of Wellgosh also threw in some NB POS that they had left over, a nice little touch and I’m extremely grateful!

Anyway, on to the shoes.

First up, let’s take a look at the New Balance 997CGR in some closer detail, and then some on-foot shots.

This pair has been dubbed “Pumice Stone”, and features a tonal grey pigskin suede upper with mesh underlays, and merlot accents on the plastic heel counter and N backer. There are also some lovely 3M hits on the N and toe panel. However, the shoe comes with these strange patterned laces which look pretty out of place on the shoe, so I had to get rid of those and swap them for a clean white set.

Secondly, and the star of the show in my opinion, the New Balance 997DCS “Dusty Olive” as some have been calling it. This pair features a lush olive green nubuck upper, and tan leather accents, which compliment that olive colour perfectly. I know the durable canvas material on the toebox isn’t everyone’s first choice, but like on the 997DOL it is excellent on this shoe and a great choice from NB.

Again, a big thanks to Wellgosh for the love, head over to wellgosh.com to grab these.