From finding your way around town to finding food to finding romance, they’ve made just about everything easier in the ever-evolving digital age. Somehow, someway, one thing has become more difficult in recent years and that’s buying sneakers on their release date for retail. What was once showing up at the mall to a line of ten regulars soon became maneuvering in a mob later to be replaced with the love/hate but certainly safer raffle system. Online, the same masses that were multiplying at malls were doing so exponentially on Eastbay and everywhere else thanks to bots. Did they take our jobs? But they’ve sure been scooping up our sneakers. Today, Foot Locker, Champs and Footaction aim to make the life easier for sneakerheads with the launch of their new release date reservation app. Currently demoing in Tampa and later launching nationwide, the concept is relatively simple: the more you shop, the more likely you are to cop. Leveraging customer loyalty through their Platinum and VIP programs, the line/raffle for shoes exists within the app
, allowing those who shop and cop often to move up in line with a greater chance to reserve a pair in a three store range. Not a frequent buyer? You still have a shot as the algorithm and randomness of the digital raffle will change with each drop. Simply put, when a shoe nears its release date, it will become live on the app. Through the Launch Locator on the app, you will be able to register for a chance to reserve and purchase the sneakers at up to three stores in your area. On the day before the launch, a countdown prop will appear on the app to ultimately alert if you won the drawing. VIP and Platinum members as well as those that check-in at respective stores will be eligible for ‘head starts’ to move up in line and ultimately improve their chances at winning. If you win, you will be alerted and have a window on the release day to purchase and pick up your shoes. Those that don’t claim the shoes they won will be penalized for future launches, while those that lost have the potential to be waitlisted and alerted on unclaimed pairs.
While the app looks to be the wave of the future for said retail franchises, select stores will still use sweepstakes and first-come, first-serve process with all information denoted on the Launch Locator. Over time though, we expect the app to rise as the premier method of buying release date product at Foot Locker family retailers. Click the highlighted links to learn more about and download the Foot Locker, Champs and Footaction apps.Maybe it’s because I’m a white dude from Boston, but I’ve always loved the New Balance 574s. When the brand launched their sneaker customizing platform, I was a little hesitant – why mess with a classic? It’s the same reason the Jordan brand won’t let you customize most of their OG kicks – brand designer’s colorways are the best. That was until I did some research into what some custom artists have done. It turns out, the 574 body is perfect for customizations. To demonstrate, I put together a list of the 22 best New Balance 574 customs on the web right now.
I was just doing some research on “custom New Balances” when I stumbled across these amazing red and black 574s. The body of the sneaker has a leatherish feel, complemented perfectly by the red cap toe. We’re not sure who made these – if you know, please drop it in the comments so I can pay respect! CLICK TO RECREATE THIS CUSTOM YOURSELF! Riding the success of both the “red devils” and the Saucony Shadow 5000, custom sneaker artist @bzikoi put together the “pink devils”. The sneakers feature the same body as the red devils, but replaced the red with a vibrant pink. I stumbled on these customs when browsing Google Images to find more customizations. I’m not sure who made them, but I am sure about why they made this list. A very similar color scheme to the “Red Devils”, except the entire sneaker (bottoms included) are black. If you know the artist, tag them in the comments. The Filipino based custom sneaker artist Jon Timbre put together a custom 574 featuring black midsoles, gray/white toes and a plum heel.
Using New Balance’s [semi] recently launched customizer platform, sneaker artist Angel Gonzalez concocted what he called the “MR 2s”. He uses a mix of contrasting colors (magenta, pink, pacific green and black) to create a silhouette that pops in all the right places. The 574 ‘Wu Balance’ customs by PKZUNIGA display an sleek black and yellow combo. The colorway is reminiscent of a killer bee, hence the name “Wu Balance” (Wu is short for “Wu Tang Clan, a hip hop group with a smash hit ‘Killer Bees‘). Ronnie Fieg took the sneaker world by storm in 2015, a large part due to his incredibly clean Asics Gel Lyte 3 salmon toes. JP Customs took these 574s to another universe with the same “salmon toe” colorway that helped put Ronnie Fieg on the map. I’ve always been a fan of JP Customs work, these are definitely no exception. Angel Gonzalez of Vagrant Sneaker makes our list yet again with another 574 custom he made back in 2011. Self dubbed the “Puerto Ricos”, the body of the sneaker embodies the red, white and blue of the Puerto Rican flag.
Angel made a clean choice using grey in the body of the sneaker as opposed to white, helping the colors in the toe and heel to pop. Back in 2012 New Balance released a limited quantity of what they called the “Gradient Pack”. While there were 5 different colorways in the pack, I chose the “Orange and Greys” for this list. If you’re looking to buy these sneakers, good luck, you’ll only be able to find some cheap overseas knock offs or being resoled on eBay. These grey and tan customs were created by the team at Sneaker News on the in store custom kiosk in New York. I’m exactly sure if their official title is “C-Note”, but either way, these are clean! I stumbled on these sky blue customs on the Flikr account of Rich Drink. I looked hard to find some more information and background on the artist, but couldn’t find much. If you have any info, please drop in the comments. It really shouldn’t come as a surprise that this is the third time Angel’s landed in this list.