Tailored Tracksuits Mean Business
First came sneaker-loafers, the high-low mix-up no one needed but everyone wants (or so the sold-out New Balance loafers would indicate). Now, New Balance has delivered the jacket equivalent, a single-breasted blazer that looks like tailoring but is born of sports gear.
The blazer’s cut is relaxed with notch lapels and a soft structure engendered by stretch-woven fabric that's also handily water-resistant. Subtly smart details abound: New Balance fitted the sleeves with smart 3D seams so they flow with the body.
Outside, patch pockets; inside, a hidden zip pocket. The buttons are tonal, and the New Balance branding is minuscule.
Add the matching trousers and suddenly you’re looking at a New Balance suit that could walk into an office. Beyond that, heck, this is a suit that jogs, commutes, survives a downpour.
Why does New Balance's tracksuit, emphasis on the suit, hit so hard?
Because it lives in the same uncanny valley as sneaker-loafers, a hybrid that feels illogical and maybe even absurd, until you realize it fixes a modern problem. A traditional suit needs you to layer over a rain jacket in downpour whereas this New Balance's tailored track jacket is the rain jacket.
Likewise, Nike’s Tech Fleece tailored pants, CLOT and adidas' dressy capsule, and Umbro's LC23 football suits all play in this liminal space, retooling tailoring with sportswear DNA and fabrics.
We’ve also seen the masters of techwear, elevated outdoor specialists like Arc'teryx Veilance and the good folks at Haven, each deliver their own weather-resistant but tailored layering pieces.
The irony? These mashups aren’t softening tailoring. They’re actually making it sharper and more useful.
New Balance’s addition to the sportswear-ification of business attire is available now over on its Japanese website for around $170.
It’s the tailored answer to “what the hell do I wear with sneaker loafers?”
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