New Balance’s 550 basketball shoe first resurfaced earlier this year in collaboration with NYC’s Aimé Leon Dore, and was a smash hit. Now, the ‘basketball oxford’ is here to stay, releasing in standard-issue blue and red colorways later this week.
New Balance’s archives are packed with a massive amount of classic sneakers, a backlog of hidden gems the brand is currently working their way through to bring the best into the modern era. The latest is the New Balance P550, a mid-cut basketball shoe that debuted in 1984 as the most expensive leather ball shoe up until that point. Referred to as the ‘basketball oxford’ thanks to their performance on-court and their wearability off of it, the 550 was popular for a time before the brand exited basketball entirely until re-entering the scene with Kawhi Leonard in recent years. This week, New Balance is set to revive the 550 in standard-release colorways for the first time since the 1980s. Dressed in plain white leather, the two launch colorways come with your choice of accent colors in either red or blue.
NEW BALANCE 550 RELEASE INFORMATION
New Balance’s first in-line colorways of the retro P550 basketball shoe have been scheduled to release later this week, on December 1st, 2020. The mid-cut ‘basketball oxfords’ will be available from both New Balance and select retailers with a price tag in the $110+ range. Check out the official images below for a better look, and stay tuned to JustFreshKicks for more New Balance release news.
UPDATE 12/14/22: New Balance’s Team Red and Team Blue colorways are back for another round. The red pair released this morning, and is still available in a full size run from the brand’s website, while the blue style is scheduled to rerelease next week, on December 21st, 2022.
UPDATE 8/11/22: New Balance has prepared another batch of their Team Red and Team Royal colorways of the 550 for a restock, scheduled to release next week on August 16th, 2022. Both pairs will retain their usual $110 price tag.
UPDATE 2/9/22: New Balance is gearing up to re-release the original ‘Team Red’ and ‘Team Royal’ colorways of their retro 550 Basketball Oxford, set for next week on February 15th, 2022. Both colorways will be available directly from the New Balance website’s Launch platform, with a price tag of $110 per pair.
