crooked tongues magazine
07oct 11
Making the Crooked Tongues New Balance 1500s
@ 6:13PM by gwar
It's nice to know the provenance of your footwear. With New Balance's Flimby factory being UK-based, they had no problem with our request for shots of our Made in England duo of 1500s being put together. That's nice, because usually you wouldn't want to see how your shoes were made any more than you'd want to see the process that led to the mechanically constituted sausages you merrily scoff on a hungover Sunday. Ignorance is bliss. Nor did we have to hire an elderly man to pretend to be a cobbler to fake the human touch.
But New Balance makes sure that their factories do things fairly and there's some seriously long term employees celebrated on the factory wall at the Lake District facility. We got about 40 shots of the shoes in various states of build, but here's a taster of what's on the horizon, with the release date still set for Saturday the 15th of October and a global launch the following week. We'll up something a little more substantial closer to the launch. Nubucks, suedes, ENCAP-assisted sole units, the 1500 lasts, laces, lots of rubber bands and some dangerous-looking machinery makes for superior sneakers and despite repeat visits, we still find the production process fascinating.
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Comments (20)
Beautiful, just scored me the orange/black, free worldwide shipping and 15% disc. Love you CT
”terrible... release way!
”that anon is mental
”Lol @ 'FART'.
”When you were there did you ask when they were going to sort out their QC issues?
”For those living in Cumbria, lake district and wondering about a factory store, it's on the main street in Shap, I've got no other address details, sorry. I went in there this summer, it was pretty small but there were some tasty deals on, a bit random in stock and sizes as is always the way with factory outlets.
”It's compelling to see these being made. It would be even more authentic to see the people doing the making, and understand who they are. I had no idea NBs were made in this country. I had no idea how trainers are made full stop. There is a lot more milage in this idea.
”Great nice
”Lol Anon. At October 8 2011 @ 22:11
”I live bout 20 mins from factory, wonder if hav a factory store.
”yo anon, please stop spamming
”ME WANT!! They come out 2 days b4 my Bday as well! So hopefully it will be a happy Birthday!
”These look great
”AMAZING...!!!
”waiting for the the M1500CT01
”Not the biggest fan of NBs but these are a must buy
”why those NB are not in the website store??
”So these ARE releasing in the States a week after your release?! AWESOME!
”I MUST OWN A PAIR OF THESE!!
”Nice!
”