"The Flying Club" obviously has a great deal of history based inspiration. Tell me a little about the creative impulse that drove the design and idea.
ET: In some respects the Flying Club idea is a continuation of the Northern Sole series we released a couple of years back. We really liked the concept and I guess still feel quite close to it. When we first visited New Balance here in the UK we pretty much knew we were going develop that idea. It just seemed to fit. The factory is based in Flimby, a small town situated in Cumbria, which lies on the coast in the North Of England. It's a pretty unique area. You can only really get there by car, and the wind and sea seem to batter the place all year round. It has a real industry feeling of yester year. The counter culture and that identity that exists in the North would also have been an influence, and with Ventile's history and as their roots and production lie in the UK, the idea seemed to connect quite quickly.
Picking the M670 as a base... desire for something different? Personal memory? Why this silhouette out of all in the NB archive?
ET: After working with New Balance over the years we have built up a bit of knowledge on the back catalogue. To reflect the Ventile concept the shoe had to be an archive model. When we were growing up, the styles I most associated with New Balance would have been the 577, 670 and 576. Those models stood out compared to other running shoes. They had the right amount of technology without being overcooked. They also had the big N! This project probably wouldn't have suited too many other models as the tweaks we wanted to introduce such as the mesh bound tongue, polyurethane collar lining and even the cotton laces wouldn't have had the same resonance. Ventile is pretty old school, so I guess the shoe had to mirror that.
