Aimé Leon Dore's Tiny, Tasty New Balance Sneaker Is Skate Shoe-Coded
Aimé Leon Dore does make a fine New Balance shoe. Say what you will otherwise, but ALD knows how to get the super simple sneaker-loving crowd going.
ALD's New Balance t500 shoe is not an entirely new collaboration but it is a welcome shift from the otherwise omnipresent ALD x NB 550 sneakers that made New Balance's reborn basketball low-top a certified sold-out hit for several seasons.
First worn by Ms. Coco Gauff in 2023, the ALD x New Balance t500 sneaker is a low-top court sneaker of quiet stylishness.
ALD's 2024 colorways uphold the t500 shoe's debut look: simple, versatile, leather.
In fact, ALD's NB t500 an old-school tennis shoe that looks less like performance footwear and more like one of New Balance's typically excellent recent skate shoes , like the ever-popular 480 (itself popular enough to be nicknamed the "New Balance Dunk").
Launching May 16 via the Aimé Leon Dore web store for $130 apiece, ALD's new t500 sneakers were presumably poised to be the next great New Balance sneaker.
The 550 was such a smash hit that it almost singularly assured ALD's crossover success for years to come.
Though it was a basketball sneaker by design, its wildly wearable streamlined silhouette foretold the demand for more stylish skate shoes, a niche that's been explored by the skatewear masters at Vans and even New Balance itself.
Rising basketball star Anthony Edwards even got in on the action with his signature adidas sneaker, kinda.
This kind of shoe proved so popular that even the world's most famous faces, themselves not immune to trends, bought in big-time.
Meanwhile, Aimé Leon Dore doubled down on running shoes of the dad variety, retooling less obvious New Balance shapes with its signature understated panache.
ALD doesn't need IYKYK cool to sell shoes, it knows, so instead of trying to blow minds with deep pulls, it simply focuses on streamlining saleable silhouettes with simplified colorways.
But its fans do appreciate the wilder fare, as they've made clear: whereas ALD's wild 860 sneakers sold out but quick, its comparatively classic Made in USA New Balances sit on shelves (they ain't cheap, to be fair).
The Aimé Leon Dore x New Balance t500 is mostly a case of the latter but its relatively low cost and extreme versatility almost ensures success.
If it ain't broke...
