New Balance’s Retro Dad Shoe Is Serving Something Salty
If your sneaker rotation has been looking a little too serious lately, consider this your excuse to loosen things up. There’s something about a chunky runner that makes a fit feel instantly less predictable, particularly when the color palette is this easy.
Meet the New Balance 204L in Sea Salt.
With its slim shape and mix of suede and mesh, it has plenty of that old-school running-shoe charm without looking like you’ve pulled a pair straight from the archives. This gray-and-silver version keeps everything pretty restrained, letting the shape do most of the talking.
And it’s the shape that makes it. After years of increasingly enormous sneakers, the 204L feels almost refreshing in comparison. It sits neatly under wider trousers and jeans, but doesn’t disappear completely beneath them. There’s enough going on across the upper to give it some personality, too.
This is the sort of sneaker you can wear now and still want to wear once the novelty of whatever’s currently trending has worn off. Throw it on with your everyday rotation and let it do its thing.
No massive sole. No overthinking it. Just a very good runner.
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