After fifteen years it’s hard to catch us off-guard, but the day New Balance offered us a Made in UK project was one such moment. Well before UP THERE existed, we have had our own personal dreams but when the moment came we had to pause. What would we do? What if we got it wrong? 

These doubts didn’t last long. Not least because we linked with our friend and New Balance designer Sam Pearce. Within minutes ideas were flowing and we had a clear vision for what we were needed to do. For us, a moment like this required extreme authenticity and conviction. With the help of Sam and 20 years of daydreaming, we set-out to give the world our ultimate version of the New Balance 991v2—an homage to our roots. 

The uppers are made with full grain leather, smooth with a slight sheen across the toe, mudguard and heel. On the saddle, the smooth texture makes way for a legendary New Balance pattern—carbon fibre. For those old enough, it brings to mind names like Colette, Crooked Tongues and Snea-Q—bastions of our culture since lost to time. 

This high-performance reference is complimented by the technical mesh, pulled from the pile of materials saved by Sam for the right project—that project being the U991UT2. It compliments the lining, another performance mesh which makes its debut on the 991v2 series. Glints of reflective panels bring dynamic life to the shoe as you move, a signature details in almost every UP THERE design. 

Hits of our green adorn the midsole tooling’s FuelCell reveal—hidden amongst the gum rubber outsole—as well as the insole. It also finds itself embroidered on the tongue, highlighting the “MADE IN ENGLAND” hit, applied upside-down as a nod to both UP THERE’s logo and our location on an island at the bottom of the world. As our second homage, we embroidered +61 on the heel—the international area code for anyone calling Australia from abroad. 

Being an UP THERE release we needed to make sure you had lace options, so we gave you three. Two solid and a reflective option which pays homage to the 1906 we released in 2023. 

With great power comes great responsibility, a thought which sat in our minds through the whole process. The discipline required to avoid novelty materials or bright colours allowed us to instead focus on perfecting each element devoid of gimmicks. Although there’s multiple custom touches and never-before-seen applications, you might not even know they were there. Just the way we like it… 

Available only from UP THERE, the New Balance U991UT2 is a global exclusive releasing online this Black Friday, November 28 at 8:00AM (AEDT) and in-store at 10:00AM (AEDT) for $420 AUD.