The Great Grandfather – New Balance 990V5

Words: Yannick Niang

What do Marteria, Casper, Dwayne Wade, Die Ärzte, Kevin Kurányi and Fler have in common? Right, they all share the same year of birth. The year 1982 was obviously under the star of greatness and the sneaker cosmos must have been influenced by it as well. The OG version of the nowadays iconic New Balance 990 appeared in 1982, “nowadays” because the second version from 1998 was the one to set the course for the classic look. Even then, the V2 combined numerous performance and comfort aspects with an unusual bulky silhouette and was thus ahead of its time. Nevertheless, this combination has attracted a wide variety of people all over the world, not least thanks to the discreet, unagitated, grey colorways.

The New Balance 990_V5 releases at a time when the sneaker world has finally caught up and the term “dad sneaker” has been established. Especially in comparison to its predecessor from 2016, the silhouette seems a bit more reduced and with the new element on the heel, New Balance sets a small but modern accent. Most people are oblivious to the fact that the 990 series is actually the great-grandfather of the dad sneaker. Instead of bowing to the colorful, conspicuous and probably short-lived qualities of its great-grandchildren, the V5 remains true to its line and convinces with a clean upper, the timeless grey colorway and top-quality material, typical of New Balances “Made in USA”-line.

In our editorial, the playfulness of youth culture meets what could possibly be the epitome of a decent age-related midlife crisis: minigolf. When choosing the minigolf course, we deliberately opted for a classic one, since it would be a shame for our dad models to have a heart attack when playing trendy black light golf. Equipped with clubs, golf balls and outfits that are suitable for every age group, our models have ventured on the different courses. The result of this shoot are pictures bursting with 90s dad vibes.