To launch the silhouette, New Balance partnered with rising label Casablanca for two colorways of the 327. The sneaker, inspired by ‘70s running shoes, has featured in numerous collaborations and arrived in a string of bold colorways this year, but arguably the best of all was its first release. In many ways, New Balance’s 327 silhouette could be on this list on its own merits. Heison Ho/Hypebeast Casablanca x New Balance 327 High fashion brands like Dior and Prada continued to fuse themselves to the world of sneakers - further blurring the lines between runway and street. Comfort-focused trends like mules supplied some of the year’s most interesting footwear options, ones that the public may very well bring with them to their daily lives when the globe conquers the pandemic. New sneaker silhouettes, bold technical innovations, rising collaborative partners, and rich storytelling were all present and accounted for. Sneakerheading from home became a necessity in these unprecedented - a word we’d honestly be cool with never hearing again after 2020 - times, but through the dark cloud cast by COVID-19, several unexpected bright spots shined through as well. Release dates? More flexible, fluid and likely to be pushed back than ever before. The Olympic Games, an annual innovation summit for the world’s biggest footwear brands? Postponed until 2021. Beginning-of-year prediction lists? Rip ‘em up. Although sneaker collecting has long been trending towards a digital pastime with online raffles, Instagram flexes and resell sites like StockX and GOAT taking the place of campouts, meet-ups and conventions, this year forced the “game” even further in that direction owing to sweeping changes necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic. In 2020, that hasn’t really changed - but so much else has. At the end of 2019, we noted that everyone wanted to be a sneakerhead in our annual end-of-year list. Collecting, loving, buying and even wearing sneakers is different now than it’s ever been before.
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