Key Points
- Ronnie Fieg unveils the New Balance 2011, his first original silhouette with the brand.
- The shoe is named for 2011, the year Kith opened its first store.
- It launches June 26 in four colorways exclusively through Kith.
- It is Fieg's 92nd New Balance release and marks the partnership's 15th anniversary.
After 92 collaborations and 15 years, Ronnie Fieg finally has an original silhouette with New Balance. The New Balance 2011, unveiled June 22, is named for the year Kith opened its first store in Manhattan's NoHo neighborhood — the starting point of a relationship that helped turn both the retailer and the brand's heritage catalog into mainstream demand.
The shoe
Co-designed with New Balance senior creative design manager Sam Pearce, the 2011 is built on an ABZORB midsole and constructed from pigskin suede, leather, and mesh — classic New Balance materials, assembled into a shape that belongs to Fieg rather than the brand's archive. It launches June 26 in four colorways — two named Sakura Flower and Leaf Green, with the remaining two yet to be officially named. All four will be sold exclusively through Kith stores and kith.com.
From curator to co-author
There is a meaningful difference between a collab and an original. Every prior Fieg x New Balance release — from the 2012 "Salmon Sole" 1300 to last year's 990v series — lived inside an existing model number. The 2011 carries Fieg's name in the silhouette itself, a distinction only a handful of collaborators in any brand's history have earned. After 15 years of driving sell-throughs and waitlists for New Balance's heritage models, Fieg graduates from curator to co-author — and New Balance signals that the Kith partnership is structural, not seasonal. It is the same franchise logic New Balance is extending elsewhere: Joe Freshgoods just opened an Every Now and Then flagship with an exclusive 992 of his own.
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