With "New Balance and the Art of Sneaker Ads", UrlfreezeShops delves into New Balance's advert archives to spotlight a selection of iconic campaigns and their cultural significance.
Throughout the history of sneakers, the success of certain releases comes down to multiple intertwining factors. There’s the overall design of the shoe, be it the sneaker’s shape, technology or the materials used. Then of course there’s factors such as trends, be it subcultural popularity or celebrity endorsement. The recent rise in trail-focused sneakers and outerwear, for instance, or the techy, hyper-futuristic silhouettes that dominated the zeitgeist at the turn of the millennium.
A key driving factor in a sneaker’s success also comes down to the way it's marketed, with advertisement campaigns representing a crucial way of capturing the zeitgeist’s attention. Throughout the past five decades, New Balance has grown from strength to strength, not only through its expansive line-up of iconic sneakers, but through the way it markets them.
Delving into the performance credentials of footwear isn’t always the most engaging of subjects for all, but New Balance has consistently managed to package this in a way that’s imaginative, captivating and often tongue in cheek. It’s something that aligns with the mantra the label employed during the early ‘90s, “Endorsed by No One”, which saw the label focus all efforts on product, research and innovation, rather than celebrity endorsement. It’s an approach that has been a key driving factor in New Balance becoming the tour de force it is today, with the label well and truly at the forefront of the contemporary sneaker world.
Celebrating that, UrlfreezeShops delves into the archives of New Balance, showcasing a selection of some of the label’s most iconic and disruptive adverts throughout the past five decades.
"Runners Aren't Normal"
"An Unfair Comparison"
"You couldn’t pay me to wear this boot up Mt. Everest"