New Balance's Shockingly Stylish Skate Shoes Still Slap Down Low
New Balance is one of the few skate shoe companies to challenge Vans' reign as deck-ready sneaker king with impressively slick sneakers as stylish as its more famous silhouettes. New Balance's 480 gets all the love, for instance, but its 417 skate sneaker is a worthy follow-up.
In fact, Franky Villani's New Balance Numeric 417 signature shoe is a case study in appreciable aesthetics, now that it's available in a low-top version.
Affable young pro Villani has been rocking a mid-top New Balance Numeric 417 shoe for some time but it's about time he upgraded (or is that downgraded?) his bespoke NB sneaker to a sleeker shape.
The result is a shockingly beautiful shoe that crosses over from killer skatewear to all-around cool.
Villani's New Balance Numeric 417 Low is fitted with a classic vulcanized sole unit (naturally, herringbone pattern underneath) and a layered upper reinforced with triple-stacked security in what Vans calls "high-wear areas."
So, despite the streamlined low-profile of these impressively handsome shoes, they ought to last even longer than some of the more conventional skate sneakers.
Not bad for what're quite literally $80 shoes. Oh, and New Balance is also offering them in a crisp white colorway if the understated burgundy isn't to taste (though, really, it should be).
New Balance Numeric is quietly surging as hard as Vans, offering a plethora of wildly cool skate shoes that have hit surprising virality throughout 2024 due to ample impressive colorways and slick, wearable shapes.
Again, the NB Numeric 480 sneaker gets most of the love but the 417 has earned some worthy attention, too, especially as this more wearable low-top variant amps up the skate shoe's appeal as a daily driver for folks shredding gnar (as the kids say) and people who just want a simple, stylish staple for daily wear.
Key to this interest is the plain fact that the 417 is even flatter than its more popular peer, for instance — how timely!
It also helps that the 417 shoe looks especially tasty in colorways like the reddish hue utilized for Villani's latest signature silhouette.
The 480 is a serious slapper, no argument.
But this understated low-top release gives New Balance's seriously slick 417 shoe stylish appeal it's always deserved.
