Exclusive: 2012 Up and Coming Collaborations + More

2011 is now behind us. We saw many collaborations this year, more so than last, that emptied our bank accounts and reached our feet and closets. I could say some were good and bad, but that really comes down to opinions and I’m not here to judge anyone on what you spend your hard-earned money on. So, 2012 is in effect and it will bring forward many more shoes that will make our bank accounts echo, give us harder choices to decide on and make us choose the ‘pick-up’ strategy to get shoes we can’t get our hands on. Many choices are going to come, but like prior times not all are available to us. It comes down to what shops will offer the collaborations online and not just in-store. So I ask ” When is the day going to come when anyone can be given the opportunity to buy a shoe not normally offered in their region”, like the RF ASICS and certain other collabs by brands and boutiques. Well for certain brands, that will change for the coming year. First, lets shed some light on certain information you may or may not know about…

*READ- This post is here to provide you with information I believe to be pretty accurate. Though I do stand behind what I write here, and would never mention it without having confidence in my sources, I do urge you to always be aware that THINGS DO CHANGE. Please keep that in mind when you read the following. Enjoy!

Lets start with New Balance. You already saw the New Balance 581 pack from Bodega, 24 Kilates, Mita Sneakers and Kasina. An interesting pack of colors and materials on an undercover silhouette. Decent, but not as exciting as seen Sneakers N Stuff (SNS) come back home with some NB’s. SNS will once again produce some New Balance 577′s. This time, they will release two color-ways.  Another person coming out with a NB577 is Jeff Staple and we will see that release later this year. Next is a company/brand that came out with a great pack two years in a row. The second year, they added 4 new color-ways to their New Balance 1400 pack in Rusted Orange, Raw Steel, Military Grey, Wine, and Mocha. I’m talking about J.Crew and their work on more New Balances. MORE, is the key word. Next year they will bring out some make-ups on the NB 710 hiker which I’m a fan of. The other, is a ‘Made in USA’ model again. 1300 or 998? Well, with a little digging and some heads up from some NB friends, I found out what model they are working on. Drum roll please…………………The winner is the NB 998. I suspect that they have built a very good relationship with New Balance and seeing how well their 1400 make-ups did, they have the power to make it happen again. All you guys getting hook ups for your overseas friends, may as well get your paypal ready. It’s going to be busy for these pick-ups. That is, if the turn out is as good as the JCrew 1400′s. We saw one thing this year that I hope is the start of a new relationship between New Balance and Ronnie Fieg. A couple of months ago, they worked on a special collab project that included a couple of New Balance 574 Customs and a T-Shirt. The turn-out was just as if RF was releasing an ASICS collab. It sold out. Could this mean that a real New Balance collaboration is coming? We’ll just have to wait and see.

New Balance 574 Customs was one of the more successful shoe stories of 2011. Rumors in 2010 about the company finally jumping into the iD/custom field prove very right in 2011. The New Balance 574C (Custom) was a huge success for the brand. The shape, materials and the turn around time was something unheard of in this market. Two to four days and you had you NB574C. Very unimaginable, but a fact. The idea being so successful, the turn around time grew to four to eight days. Still an unheard of delivery time compared to other competitor’s 4 to 6 weeks delivery time. So What’s next for New Balance Customs? Well, New Balance opened a “New Balance Experience” store in lower Manhattan this year. They have a Custom Build area in the store where you can build an NB880. If all goes well, we will see the NB574C make an appearance at the store. That means you will be able to make your shoe in 15 to 20 minutes and walk out the store within minutes after. That’s pretty amazing.

Second, there will finally be other lifestyle models introduced to their catalog. Two possible models will be introduced. One will be another NB “Made in USA” model and the other is one that may be coming back home. Unfortunately, I can’t say what models they are because I don’t have SOLID information. The percentage is a lot less than what I’ve mentioned in this entire article so far. So, you’ll just have to wait until I can weigh in more pounds, instead of just having a couple of ounces.

Next is the brand that has been receiving a lot of love and giving out collabs left and right. It’s none other than ASICS. We saw quite a few collabs last year from the looks of Ronnie Fieg, Hanon, Patta, Atmos, Jun Watanabe, SNS, Zillion, Surface etc. So who’s next? We still need to hear about the Huf collab which disappeared off the planet. Hopefully we see it in 2012. You already saw an image of Solebox collab which was suppose to be part of this post. Lets add AZITA and Woei to the list of boutiques coming out with ASICS. Talking ASICS, a rumor I heard seems more solid when a comment by Daviet was left on my Facebook. I mentioned something earlier in the post and it was ,”When is the day going to come when anyone can be given the opportunity to buy a shoe not normally offered in their region”. Well, for 2011 we saw a certain trend with certain brands and shoes being released worldwide. With the obvious success of that, some brands have taken noticed and we’ll see the trend continue heavily in 2012. Will we finally see a Ronnie Fieg ASICS overseas? Will we see more Patta Collabs in the States? I think that more doors will be open in 2012.

The Nike Insta Pump Fury Huarache Free was released to some positive and negative remarks. At the moment, new color-ways are being introduced for the 2012 Spring Quarter but, where is the original Tinker silhouette? Well, if my sources are correct, you can expect to see the OG Huarache seeing a TZ/QS release this year. You can check out some images around the net. Just google it. I know some fans will be excited to see these come back. Just as much as seen the Nike Air Current also make-a comeback this year. I have heard of another collaboration from ATMOS and Nike again. To me, they have some of the nicest make-ups on the Nike Air Max 1. To date, they are very much sought after. No word to what model it will be, but who knows if it will happen. Being in a situation where they are in debt to some brands, who knows if it will ever see the day of light.

I haven’t been too active with the Nike iD info because I’ve been out of the loop with my contacts. I did bring you the most accurate information last year over any other blog, the most up to date palette changes and a list of future models that were all correct. I hope to continue the trend this year by providing you with more accurate Nike iD information. BUT, I can share with you something I have heard rumblings about AGAIN. The Bespoke Air Force 1 program has been a successful venture for Nike. Though the $800+ price tag is rather steep, it has still found it’s way into many homes. In 2010 I heard of a possible introduction of a new Bespoke model. That model is the Tinker masterpiece and loved Nike Air Max 1. Talks soon diminished and nothing more was heard of in regards to the info being true. Again, the talk has started and they supposedly picked the Air Max 1 to come to the Bespoke program; There was talk between another model instead of the AM1 and that was a Dunk. If the talk is true, I’m glad they picked the AM1 over that. I would assume the popularity and revenue that the AM1 has brought in the standard Nike iD palette has pushed it forward. So if all goes as planned, we will finally see a Bespoke Air Max 1.

In other Nike news…Nike is planning on opening up two to three more stores in NYC. One directly across the street to the New Balance Experience store. The name of the store will be called the Nike Running Experience store. Nothing but running products will be sold there. They are also in a bidding war for a Times Square spot. It will be the biggest Nike store in the world. It’s dubbed as the Nike World store. I have also heard of another spot downtown where the Yellow Rat Bastard store is located. They are interested in taking that spot from YRB. Maybe a new NSW 21 Mercer relocation? Possibly.

I hope you find this information intriguing and that some of it made you drool. Like you, I hope everything read here is accurate. I can say that I did as much digging as possible before posting anything here and have found some validity to the stories written. If it changes, don’t blame me. Shit happens everyday. Peace!