Preface
Pretty sure many of us have noticed these while looking for Killshot 2 alternatives. I figured I'd review them since there seems to be a lot of interest in them, especially given the recent Amazon sale, and a relative lack of reviews.
Impressions
These are nice looking shoes, there's no denying that. The design is clean, and the infamous oversized N logo is much more muted than on most NB's as it's perforated and smaller than it regularly is. The streamlined, clean design is an excellent modern take on the retro style with the navy accents, white body and laces, and the perfectly colored gum sole. It takes inspiration from the original GAT design and the coloration of the insanely popular Killshot 2 and makes something newer and sleeker out of them.
Unfortunately, much of the praise ends here. This is because the quality really doesn't live up to New Balance's standards, much less the design. I'll be blunt: the leather is shit. I didn't come in with high expectations and at best, hoped it would be similar quality to my Stan Smith's. It is far worse.
And no, this was not an isolated case. Aside from the many reviews on the J.Crew website, I ordered 5 pairs of the shoe and only ended up keeping a pair because I managed to purchase it for $40 from the recent Amazon sale. Each and every pair, without exception, had at least one shoe with notable defects.
The most prevalent issue that each and every pair suffered from was loose grain; some of the worst I've ever seen in any leather. It's amazing that New Balance sourced such poor quality leather. At best, a small portion of the leather had loose grain, at worst, nearly the entire shoe. I wish I'd taken photos, but the second pair I received had extreme problems with loose grain across both shoes. Here are some examples with the pair I ended up keeping that had the least loose grain overall.
A secondary problem that was mentioned in the reviews, but I only noticed on one of the shoes I received, was that the leather was flaking away, leaving the underlying chrome tanned light blue leather visible. This is a concern as with wear, the shoes could easily begin to show similar flaking, but I only noticed it on one new pair.
Continuing on the leather issue, it creases horribly. To test my pair out, I wore them on a several mile walk and by the end the leather had creased quite noticeably. More annoyingly, it had creased very differently across both shoes, which continues to show NB's lack of QC in proper leather clicking. More annoyingly, on the left pair, the leather creased oddly across the cap, resulting on pressure on my toes every step. The right didn't exhibit this issue due to the large amount of creasing across the cap, but it definitely makes the the shoe less attractive to have the "rat nose" effect that many often complain about in regards to CDB's. The only other thing I'll note is that the laces are crap. The laces on my Stan Smiths is far superior; the NB's have super thin flat laces that have tissue-like consistency.
Not all is bad though. Again, I have to reiterate that I love the design of the shoes, I actually prefer it to the Killshots, though it can be too plain with some outfits. Another thing New Balance really got right is the last; these shoes fit wonderfully. I have slightly wide feet and these accomodate them beautifully and I can't see it being an issue for average width feet either. It manages to be wide enough to accommodate the slight width, while avoiding the chunkiness of wider shoes. Even better, the thick footbed, which is quite comfortable, is easily removable and not glued down, allowing for easy use of orthotics. As mentioned beforehand, to test these shoes out, I walked several miles in them non-stop and was quite comfortable the whole time.
Conclusions
The burning question is: Would I buy these again?
Honestly, for the stock price of $75, these are absolutely not worth it. The quality and QC lottery is just really not worth the hassle. I only ended up keeping them because I managed to get lucky and purchase them for $40, which isn't something I see repeating anytime soon, especially as these are generally excluded from coupons. For that price, and for the excellent design and comfort, I think they're worth it. But for $75, your money is far better off spent on GATs, Killshot 2s, Stan Smiths, Superstars, or any other decent quality white sneaker that meets your fancy. NB really let me down with the quality of these otherwise great shoes.
If New Balance and J.Crew could fix these shoes with some better quality leather, they'd have a real winner on their hands. But as of right now, they just have a huge disappointment.
TL;DR A comfortable, well-designed shoe with terrible materials and QC that is worth $40, but not $75.
Submitted May 16, 2017 at 10:22PM by az0606 http://ift.tt/2pIrfF6
