New Balance's Best Skate Sneaker Is Beautifully Huge (Literally)
New Balance's 480 sneaker is a minimalist masterpiece. The low-profile skate shoe is a classy silhouette only made better by artistic inclination.
Legendary Dogtown thrasher Natas Kaupas got his turn at the NB 480 and demonstrated the power of a little creativity, turning the sleek sneak into a terrifyingly tall shoe riddled with beautiful colors indicative of his inimitable design language.
Kaupas, a massively influential street skater, knows what works best for a sneaker like the NNB 480, which works just as fluidly on the skateboard as it does with, well, streetwear.
He splashes the high-top 480 shoe with vivid high-contrast color and texture that takes a fairly understated sneaker into deliciously statement-making territory.
Kaupas purposely undermines (while also making the most of) the 480 sneaker's built-in versatility with hits of neon against a comparably muted upper that blends burgundy leather with brown suede, a delicious mix made even louder by pink trim and stark white stitches.
Truly, if the Natas Kaupas x New Balance 480 is nothing else, it's a feast for the eyes, a surprising and sweet blend of visual intrigue that works almost too well.
This chaotic a combo should be a mess but it's actually a sublimely expressive canvas. Maybe it's a mess but, if it is, it's a beautiful mess.
And it's actually, if anything, refreshing to see a fairly subtle skate sneaker be pushed this far. More collaborators ought to take the leap.
Fewer simple sneakers and more statement shoes, please, just like the good ol' days — the glory days of skate shoes!
Kapuas is in good company, actually.
Illustrator Jeremy Fish only just took his own spin on the New Balance 480 as part of the ongoing "Re-mixed" 480 collaborative series, transforming the humble shoe into a similarly spicy sneaker buoyed by personality.
It's not like these one-offs will make the appreciably approachable 480 any less popular, either.
Like most of the really (really) good recent 480 colorways that've dropped lately, don't expect the Natas Kaupas 480 to last long when it releases on May 20 via New Balance's website and select skate stores. A shoe this good ain't gonna stick around.
