New Balance Skate footwear F/W 2024 Preview

Retail Buyers Guide: Skate Footwear FW2024 Retail Buyer’s Guide
Brand: New Balance
Interviewee: Nick Pappas, Senior Product Manager

MARKETING
New collection themes for next season?
Not so much collection themes for this season, rather, we try and offer a balance between core skate colorways and seasonal colors so that we have something for everyone. For example, on Tom Knox’s 600, we have an all-black to the floor colorway as it’s a Tom/team favorite and we’ll balance that with a burgundy suede/mesh colorway with a gum tooling. You’ll see that thought process throughout the entire line.

Are there new trends to be aware of for next season?
You’ll see a lot of dark colored soles on our S224 offering as it was something that came up in requests from the team fairly regularly. We noticed that when we put a black/dark grey/ or gum tooling on some of the designs, the reaction was really strong.

Are you working on any collaborations/ crossovers with brands?
Numeric will continue to work with our non-signature pros on colorways that put a special twist on some of our team models. We also have some really good skateshop colabs dropping in S224 on our 440 and 480 models. Have some other big projects cooking too, but you’ll have to wait and see on those.

DESIGN
What’s new in terms of silhouettes?
For S224, we will be launching Franky Villani’s 417 in a low top cut. It will feature the same vulcanized tooling as his original mid top, but the upper has been redesigned as a low top and has more of a relaxed fir than its previous iteration. We will also release a new version of our Trail 440’s using the 440v2 design language. We’ve added a more comfortable compound to the midsole and added water resistant features to the upper. You will also see a low top version of the Trail 440v2 launch this season for the first time. Finally, and not necessarily a new silhouette, but we are adding a couple colors of our Numeric 480 to the inline offering for the first time. So if shops haven’t had the opportunity to get any of the first few limited colorways we launched in 2023, they’ll have 2 really good suede, skate inspired, options in the seasonal offering.

Are you introducing any new technology this season?
No new technology this season, just working on perfecting our existing tech. We’re always looking at ways to improve our existing models. This season, for example, we will be updating the internal Achilles lock pods on Tiago’s 1010 model. We noticed some inconsistencies with them during production, so we took a hard look at how we can improve them and really make them do what they’re supposed to do. After a few dozen trials and having our team test different versions, we’ve finalized the updated pods and will roll them into production for S224. No price increase, consumer just gets a better version of a beloved shoe, for the same price.

Is sustainability a concern in your brand?
We are always looking at ways to improve the sustainability aspect of our shoes. Unlike some other sports/categories, we are limited to certain materials for proper function in skateboarding. So two things we look at as far as sustainability when we build Numeric skate shoes; we use chrome free dyes for our suedes and leathers which are better for the environment and we also look to use textiles with recycled content for our upper and internal parts. If we can find backers and liners that contain recycled content, that’s a huge part of building shoes, even if the external upper materials are still suede or leather. Also, we’re all skateboarders over at Numeric and we all know how frustrating it was when you spent your money on a pair of shoes and they fell apart far more quickly than the amount you spent on them would suggest. So, we make it a point to build our shoes to last and make sure the consumer is getting their moneys worth. By building shoes that last longer, our consumers are sending skated shoes off to the landfill less often which also contributes to the sustainability, from an end of life standpoint.

What are the must have skate shoes for FW24?
We’re really excited for Frankys 417 Low and you will see a good amount of marketing around it because of that. After that, I think the colors and materials we came up with for S224 on some of our most popular models, are going to make them must haves. We’ve got a good mix of basic skate colorways in models like 1010, 808, and 306. Then we compliment those with our strong seasonal color palette to create some excitement within the line on models like the 600 and the 440v2 family.