How New Balance Went From Dad Shoes To Cultural Icon
September 9, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readNew Balance was stuck. Fifteen years ago, the company made some of the best shoes in the world, had a century of history, and was known for one thing: the dad shoe. Today, it is worn by Olympic champions, NBA stars, and fashion insiders. On A Different Take, host Linda Boff spoke with New Balance CMO Chris Davis and sneaker journalist Matt Welty about how the brand pulled off that transformation. The surprising answer, according to Davis, is that New Balance did not reinvent itself. It revealed itself.
The Dad Shoe Was Never the Problem
The conventional reading of New Balance’s history is that the brand had an image problem. The 574 was a staple of Foot Locker’s two-for-$89 deal in the early 2000s. It is the gray sneaker emoji on your phone. It was comfortable, reliable, and deeply uncool to anyone under 40. But as Welty pointed out, the “dad shoe” label carried a different connotation inside the culture. The 990, which debuted in 1982, was the first sneaker to cost $100 — roughly $346 in today’s money. That price point made it a status symbol in places like the DMV area around Washington, D.C., where hustlers wore them because they were on their feet all day and because the shoes signaled wealth. As longtime New Balance designer Stephen Smith once put it, “There’s something comforting about a dad and there’s something wealthy about a father.”
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:27) **The Dad Shoe Problem** - New Balance had a century of history and made great shoes, but was known as the "dad shoe" for a generation of consumers.
- 2 (01:49) **Matt Welty's First Impression: The 574 and the Two-for-$89 Deal** - Matt describes how most people his age were introduced to New Balance through the 574 sneaker.
- 3 (03:03) **The "Dad Shoe" as a Status Symbol** - Designer Stephen Smith reframed the "dad shoe" label, connecting it to ideas of comfort and wealth.
- 4 (03:58) **The Accidental European Collaborations (2005-2006)** - New Balance used limited collaborations with European boutiques to shed an unwanted nationalist association and open up to the sneakerhead market.
- 5 (05:47) **The Kennedy Collaboration and Steve Jobs' Co-Sign** - In 2011, the Concepts "Kennedy" collaboration put New Balance on all the sneaker blogs, and Steve Jobs' public use of the brand added cultural cachet.
- 6 (06:23) **The Chunky Shoe Trend (2017-2018)** - When Balenciaga and Fila made chunky sneakers popular, New Balance's 990 was perfectly positioned to ride the wave of authenticity.
- 7 (09:16) **Chris Davis: The Brand Transformation Begins (10 Years Ago)** - Chris Davis explains that the transformation started a decade ago as a "revelation process" to reveal the brand's truth, not to reinvent it.
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Guests on this episode
Show Notes
A Different Take — Season 2 launches with the story of New Balance’s remarkable transformation from “dad shoe” to one of the hottest brands in sports and culture.
Hosted by Linda Boff, this episode goes behind the strategy that changed how the world saw New Balance. Chris Davis, Chief Marketing Officer & Brand President of New Balance, and Matt Welty, Complex Associate Editor and longtime sneaker journalist, unpack the pivotal moments—from limited-edition collaborations and the rise of sneaker culture to New Balance’s decision to embrace its heritage rather than imitate its competitors.
How do you make an “uncool” brand cool without losing what made it authentic in the first place?
Welcome to Season 2 of A Different Take.
0:00 Intro & Background
2:56 The Reputation
6:17 The Turning Point
7:45 What Actually Changed?
12:58 Surprise: They Didn't Hide The Dad Shoe
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