If you follow Aimé Leon Dore’s founder, Teddy Santis, on Instagram, then you’ll likely be aware that the brand has collaborative New Balance 1000 sneakers on the way. Why? Because Santis has been posting teasers of them for months.

The new collaboration has been hiding in plain sight, gracing Santis’ Instagram account multiple times and popping up in the brand’s lookbooks (twice!). 

Aimé Leon Dore has been teasing this collaboration for some time. But now, finally, there is light at the end of the tunnel. 

We are (almost certainly) close to the release date and the full release is more extensive than initially thought. 

Originally teased in an all-white colorway as well as a glossy black make-over, it’s now been confirmed that a grey version is also releasing — a surprisingly monochrome selection for Aimé Leon Dore, whose New Balance sneakers normally feature some injection of color. 

Another feature that sets the New Balance 1000 apart from other New Balance’s x Aimé Leon Dore collaborations is its sheer size.

This is a very chunky shoe.

We’ve seen Aimé Leon Dore take on many of the brand's dad shoes and these have recently veered toward more slimly shaped sneakers. But the 1000 might be the stockiest sneaker in the New Balance range and, as a result, the stockiest New Balance x ALD collab yet. 

New Balance is putting considerable attention on the beefed-up sneaker, originally released in ‘99 but brought back to the market this year. It has already released a collaboration with Joe Freshgoods using the model (which, like with all Joe Freshgoods collaborations, sold out instantly) and it has a long list of general release pairs lined up.

When the Aimé Leon Dore collaboration releases, it will undoubtedly raise the NB 1000’s stock further, as has happened with practically every New Balance model ALD has collaborated on. However, we unfortunately still don’t know exactly when that will be. 

Now that a third (and, reportedly, final) colorway has been unveiled, the release is almost certainly soon. It’s just a matter of waiting to see how soon.

New Balance's Grey Day is running for the entire month of May, so could this new grey colorway be the grand finale for the month-long celebration?