A REVlite midsole provides additional comfort without added bulk or weight.
Source: 247
There isn’t any secret that last year I touted the New Balance 247 as a close competitor for shoe of the year. The shoe made my top ten shoes with the Tokyo Rat version of the new style and the price for the premium model was only 120.00 while the entry model for the 247 was only 80.00! It was a revelation and a winner. New Balance took a silhouette that I stated was being worn down and overused (the socklike fit trainer without a defined toebox design) and they turned into a lightweight elegant trainer that I honestly felt disrupted the momentum of the adidas NMD.
247 Luxe From New Balance Remains One of the Best Kicks of the Year
A funny thing happened on the way to the register for the New Balance 247, however. It didn’t sell as well as it should have. The shoe was eventually marked down to as low as 29.99 on models that remain in inventory at a variety of stores. I still took the time to place the shoe in the running for shoe of the year and I thought that the model was capable of really turning heads if the marketing and storytelling improved. The brand did very little to distinguish the model at accounts. There wasn’t any merchandising. As 2017 ended the 247 seemed to fade away as New Balance began to focus on other models. This month the “NEW” 247 reappeared and while broken sizes is never evidence of interest completely, it does tell you how successful a brand is at rolling out a new product.
There aren’t any broken sizes on the site. I didn’t even know the shoe had been released. Maybe the failure to promote has generated the lack of interest, but there are other factors I think are the real culprits. In what I think is a very non-New Balance move the brand has incorporated elements into the new version that appear to be take directly from adidas; a brand that is trending down. It makes sense though considering the footwear design begins during the previous calendar year in many instances. Maybe New Balance saw the momentum of adidas and decided to scale back and redesign the 247. Above is the New Balance 247 revision. Below are two shoes from adidas:
Now, the everyday person wouldn’t see anything at all if they walked into a store and saw the New Balance 247. My first glance at this new model from New Balance though drove me directly to adidas in my thoughts, but what’s even worse is that New Balance in atypical fashion pulled a similar move to adidas. That move adidas made I predicted would end the momentum for the brand. I was spot on in that analysis. Here is the article:
adidas Running Price Increases Will Slow Its Momentum | Compare & Contrast with Nike Running
New Balance has taken the 247 from 80-120 dollars to 139.99 dollars on this latest model. The updated knit, increased collar padding and tpu cage are all nice features and were needed. I even like the reduction of the amount of leather used on the heel counter. While this isn’t a performance shoe the original New Balance left a bit to be desired in everyday wear. Increasing the price to 140 dollars? I know that many NBs are on the premium side, but that’s a serious mistake in my opinion. When you couple that with the almost blatant design elements taken from adidas, New Balance may be trending down after what was a solid run of kicks from the brand last year.
Update 7-1-2018:
The above colorway was the introduction to the new 247. New Balance has launched the “Engineered Mesh” model which retails at 89.99. The “Suede” model at 119.99 and a “Mesh” version at 79.99.