New Balance Just Released Blue Bottle Coffee Sneakers

The Blue Bottle Coffee x New Balance Fresh Foam X 1080v12.

Comfort-forward sneaker company New Balance and Oakland, California-based Blue Bottle Coffee have teamed up for a limited-release sneaker, giving new meaning to the shoe company’s Fresh Foam line.

The Blue Bottle Coffee x New Balance Fresh Foam X 1080v12 dropped overnight throughout the United States, selling directly from New Balance for $179.99.

The shoe is among the 12 iterations of the 1080 model within the Fresh Foam X line. The Fresh Foam 1080 is pitched as a plush everyday training shoe for runners of all types.

“The Blue Bottle Coffee x New Balance Fresh Foam X 1080v12 is an expression of performance and craft at the highest levels,” New Balance says in a description of the shoe. “This special edition utilizes a dope dyed knit upper and tongue, for a mindful take on the shoe’s lightweight construction. The smooth transitions offered by Fresh Foam X cushioning are fine-tuned with updated midsole mapping, which applies more foam to wider areas of the midsole and increases flexibility at the narrower points.”

Available in both men’s and women’s sizes, the new shoe eschews the modern classic “coffee” or “espresso” colorway in favor of the signature Blue Bottle blue, along with white and cream colors and a cappuccino-like brown outsole. The Nestlé-owned Blue Bottle logo appears on the heel counter.

This is not New Balance’s first collab in the coffee space. In 2017, the company partnered with North Carolina-based Counter Culture Coffee for the limited-edition 997 Cortado.

New Balance competitor Nike in 2021 launched a trio of coffee-inspired sneakers, including the legendary Air Force 1. Sneaker News reported yesterday about the forthcoming release of coffee-inspired Air Jordan 1 called “Coffee Legend.” 

Other sneaker brands, meanwhile, use actual coffee byproducts to construct their shoes.

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