Make It New

Make it new. This dictum of the moderns has stuck with us. Almost every movement in culture has since responded to it in some way, even when they discredit it. There are, perhaps, reasons to. Pound paraphrased an idea from Zhuo Qiuming, a Chinese historian from the fifth century BCE. But you could also say that by turning it into an imperative and shortening it, he made the phrase “If you can improve yourself in a day, do so every day, and keep doing so daily” new. In a way, it resonates so deeply because it’s a question we’ve been dealing with for millennia.

The designers of New Balance’s 204L seem to have been occupied by a similar question. But where Pound borrowed outward, somewhat clumsily, the designers of New Balance’s 204L looked inward and fused the slim structure of 1970s running shoes with a style from the 2000s. “The shoe is designed to stand out from other New Balance models with this convergence of two different eras,” New Balance Senior Designer Pierome Sar said. And indeed, the 204L feels familiar and yet totally new. They have not chased novelty for its own sake but have instead created something different out of what was already there.

But what makes this shoe so admirable is that it doesn’t indulge in nostalgia. It’s not just some reissued sneaker in another new colorway or some anniversary edition that promises to bring you back in time. No, it just recombines the past in a way that makes different eras present again.