Casablanca x New Balance 327 Launches In Two Colorways On April 18th

Elliot Santiago May 7th, 2020 (updated)

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Quite possibly one of the biggest events of the year in terms of celebrity attendance and social media buzz, Paris Fashion Week continues to spark up high levels of anticipation for the collections set to arrive during the upcoming Fall/Winter season. Especially for the sneaker scene, which already has uncovered a plethora of crazy collaborations from Kiko Kostadinov’s last ASICS collection, to the announcement of Jackie Chan’s sneaker with Li-Ning, to the newest Nike silhouette guided under the design leadership of sacai’s very own Chitose Abe. And now, it looks as though New Balance is inserting themselves into the conversation as for the first-time ever, the Boston-based imprint is teaming up with burgeoning fashion house Casablanca for a brand new lifestyle model entitled the 327.

Charaf Tejer, the founder of the Parisian brand who also happens to be a co-founder of Pigalle and collaborator with Virgil Abloh, brings his luxury-meets-sport mentality into this new sneaker design. Pulling heavy inspiration from that of tennis lifestyle (as so evidently stated in the campaign’s teaser image), Tejer structures his new silhouette in low-profile form, and opts for clean-cut overlays along the toe box, mudguards, and heels to fall against its perforated base. In addition, oversized “N” logos grace the lateral paneling, followed by hefty traction edges that extend onto the heels for an aesthetic loosely similar of sacai’s LDWaffle. As of now we have a first look at three colorways including an orange/green, black/white, white/green that saw a debut on the runway, so stay tuned as we learn more information regarding its official release.

UPDATE (04/10/2020):
European retailers have opened up raffles for Casablanca’s New Balance 327 “Idéaliste” collaboration.

UPDATE (04/03/2020):
Casablanca’s New Balance 327 “Idéaliste” collaboration has been postponed to April 18th.

UPDATE (03/09/2020):
Casablanca and New Balance officially announce April 4th release date for first drop of their “Idéaliste” collection.