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The Story of the Amie Leon Dore and New Balance Collaboration

Amie Leon Dore and New Balance Collaboration

The first time Amie Leon Dore and New Balance shoes decided to work together, it was 2019. The end result was the iconic 997, one of New Balance's most loved shoes of all time. Since that time, the designer and the sneaker manufacturer have come together to share a variety of different ideas, something that has become quite commonplace between the two. If you're interested in knowing more about the history of their collaborative efforts, then you have fortunately come to the right place. You can learn more about everything they've worked on in the past and hopefully, that will leave you daydreaming about things that they might potentially do in the future as well.

How It All Started

As previously mentioned, the two had never worked together prior to 2019. That's an important thing to realize because when you stop and think about it, there hasn't been that much time that has passed since then. Considering the amount of work that the two have done together since their first collaboration, you might think that several more years have actually passed. It all serves as a testament to the working collaboration that these two sides of a coin have with one another. It's also worth noting that while Dore has done collaborations with other shoe manufacturers in the past, many people consider those collaborations done with New Balance to be among the very best that have ever existed with regard to this particular designer. Perhaps the thing that really shocked the greatest number of people was that when these two first came together for that first collaboration in 2019, everyone was a bit surprised. As a matter of fact, a lot of people considered them to be mismatched, saying that the designer simply didn't create things that would go well with this particular manufacturer. Sure, they could have listened and simply stopped working on anything but instead, they decided to take things in the opposite direction. They even brought back one of the sneaker manufacturer's most iconic commercials spots from the 1980s, one that was meant to be both poignant and inspirational. The campaign talked about what you should do when the situation that you're in becomes especially difficult. Obviously, the commercial spot is designed to show people triumphing over this type of adversity and it’s something that resonated well with fans both during the original 1980s run and the second time around. It also set the stage for more collaborations between the two, as this one proved to be an enormous success, despite claims made by the naysayers.

Projects Over the Years

While the original project that created sneakers which looked exactly like they came straight out of the 1980s was a huge success, it didn't take long for them to figure out that they needed to do more projects together. From the time that the first project hit store shelves in April of 2019 until their next project, it only took seven months. In November of that same year, the two came up with the 990 V2 and the V5. Both incorporated accents of green, black and gray. The V2 came with bright yellow shoelaces while the V5 had more subdued light blue laces. Both of these versions proved to be extremely popular, further setting the stage for yet more collaborations between these two individuals. In March of 2020, New Balance released a brand new shoe, the 827. It's a frenetic looking shoe with a rounded design that almost looks like you could rock back and forth as if you were on a rocking horse while standing in place. There are a lot of colors involved as well, making the shoe look like something directly out of a children's daycare area. As a result, these particular shoes never reached the level of popularity that the previous collaborations had reached. The product itself is solid, but it doesn't have the same type of appeal that the other collaborations enjoyed. Fortunately, all of that was corrected in October of 2020 when the two collaborated on the 550 for the Friendship Through Basketball campaign. These shoes looked much more like the retro sneakers that had been so popular between the two in their first two collaborations. There were four shoes involved in this particular collaboration, all of them featuring different colors. They all had white as their base color, while color accents were provided in red, green, blue and gray.

Further Collaborations

With the success of the overwhelming majority of their collaborations, the two decided to pair up again in August of 2020 in order to create the 1300. This was a shoe that had a retro appearance, thanks in large part to its overall suede finish and solid colors. Speaking of color, you could choose one that was done in either retro green or pink. Both proved to be popular options with the general public. Most recently, the two came together again in order to start working on a brand new collaboration just a couple of months ago. There is little doubt that this and other future product projects that they work on together will be just as successful as the ones they've done in the past. After all, they've proven that they have good chemistry together and they're capable of creating a solid product that resonates well with people who want to buy their sneakers.

New Balance has long been a sneaker manufacturer with an excellent reputation for turning out shoes that are both attractive and of exceptional quality. People buy them because they enjoy wearing them. The shoes look good, but they also do exactly what they were designed to do, which is provide an excellent level of comfort and support for individuals who tend to lead active lifestyles. Back when Dore and New Balance first started working together, no one thought that anything appreciable would really come of it. It turned out to be one of the most successful collaborations in New Balance's history. Fortunately, those who were involved decided to refrain from listening to popular opinion and do what they knew they could do all along. Today, everyone else realizes what they knew all along.

Lily Wordsmith

Written by Lily Wordsmith

Lily Wordsmith is a freelance writer who has had a love affair with the written word for decades. You can find her writing blog posts and articles while sitting under a tree at the local park watching her kids play, or typing away on her tablet in line at the DMV. In addition to her freelance career, she is pursuing ebook writing with an ever-growing repertoire of witty ebooks to her name. Her diversity is boundless, and she has written about everything from astrobotany to zookeepers. Her real passions are her family, baking desserts and all things luxe.

Read more posts by Lily Wordsmith

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