New Balance's All-Black 991 Is Surprisingly Colorful

How do you make an all-black dad shoe a little more interesting? Stitch it up. Just ask New Balance.

In collaboration with London-based jewelry brand Bleue Burnham, New Balance remixed its classic blacked-out Made in UK 991v1 sneaker with colorful contrast stitching that match the jeweler's collection of colorful assorted stones.

Thin multi-color stitching lines the entire shoe, as well as the mid-foot and the "N" logo. It's kind of paradoxical in a way. An all-black sneaker that still encompasses most of the colors of the rainbow.

Basically, New Balance took one of its most pristine sneakers to the tailor, and it was all for the better. Elsewhere, black pebbled leather keeps things dusky and demure.

These little colorful inserts add just enough va va voom to the shoe without taking away the inherent charm of a classic black dad shoe, which New Balance obviously knows very well.

Just take a look at the JJJJound 990, the Triple Black 204L, and the sooty 880R. NB understands that black is the new black. As such, the dad shoe savant is constantly looking for new ways to build upon its established elderly sneaker lore.

Obviously, there's only so much you can do to an all-black shoe before it leaves the bounds of blacked-out territory. As such, the brand has embraced subtle ways to upgrade simple black sneakers without eradicating the monotone baseline that makes these shoes what they are.

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