New Balance's Sleeping Moc isn't just a cold weather slip-on. It's a throwback puffer silhouette steeped in New Balance's heritage cues. Sounds simple enough but this is smartly advanced stuff.

New Balance is on fire. Between a mix of sublime in-line designs, big collaborative wins, and hyped re-releases, the retro-minded American imprint is dropping a series of stylish sneakers all but unmatched in the the realm of major sportswear brands.

Part of New Balance's strengths lie in how it can remix classic shapes with fresh updates, which of course isn't a trait unique to NB.

However, New Balance has a particular approach that distinguishes its shoes from peers.

Take the Sleeping Moc slip-on as an example. It's a pretty slick slip-on that looks more The North Face than New Balance but you can see throughlines between established shapes from, say, the New Balance Minimus line and the Numeric series of skate shoes. There's also the outdoorsy motifs of the relatively uncommon New Balance Niobium and a kinship with New Balance's Caravon moc.

Even New Balance's more classic dad shoes share some stylistic elements, like a rotund facade and supportive sole unit.

As such, though the Sleeping Moc is a pretty wild shoe to come from New Balance, it's very much a New Balance shoe.

Unfortunately the Sleeping Moc is also kinda hard to come by.

It was only available in Asia by way of retailers like atmos' website, though there's no guarantee that they won't also release on New Balance's website, where there's plenty of other additional good stuff to choose from.