New Balance’s Spacey Dad Shoe Is a Different Beast Entirely

New Balance’s 983 looks like it took a wrong turn somewhere on the way to Earth. With its bulbous overlays and oddly sculptural shape, it’s giving serious space-age energy, and not in the usual “slap some silver on it and call it futuristic” kind of way.

There’s a certain weirdness to this sneaker that makes it hard to ignore. The upper is busy without being chaotic, the oversized N logo looks almost inflated, and the sole has enough curves to give an architect something to think about. It’s a lot of shoe, but that’s precisely the point.

New Balance has never been short on chunky dad shoes, yet the 983 feels like it came from a slightly different corner of the brand’s universe. It’s less concerned with looking like a vintage running shoe and more interested in seeing how far that familiar formula can stretch.

The proportions are what really sell it. Between the layered upper and the exaggerated sole, the 983 has a strange, almost cartoonish quality that makes it stand out from the sea of mesh runners currently doing the rounds. It’s not exactly subtle, but then subtlety was never going to be the assignment here.

The result is a sneaker that feels a little alien, a little futuristic, and refreshingly difficult to compare with everything else on the market. Earthbound sneaker rotation? This one might be ready for a change of scenery.

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