In an industry addicted to retro, Highsnobiety presents The New Vanguard of Footwear, a dedicated hub that celebrates the pioneers around the world who are changing the face of what is now a multi-billion dollar industry.
There’s no denying that New Balance has been on a roll lately, thanks to a great legacy product and an unrivaled roster of collaborators. But a key driver of the brand’s recent success has been the talent within the brand.
Yue Wu, originally from China, moved to the United States eight years ago to pursue her dream of becoming a shoe designer. If the reaction to his Refined Future pack is anything to go by, he’s off to a flying start.
The shoe, which Highsnobiety named Sneaker of the Year, is Wu’s first on the lifestyle team. The designer was previously part of New Balance’s performance team working on more commercial models, but his goal has always been to enter the lifestyle realm and make a lasting impact, like the Steven Smiths and Christian Tressers before him.
“One of the main reasons I got into sneakers is that I loved playing basketball. There was a period when I thought I could be a professional basketball player,” Yue laughs. “But then I realized it wasn’t in my wheelhouse.”
Basketball and the sneaker culture surrounding it was what made Yue itch, but it was another memory that he considers his defining sneakerhead moment.
“I remember my mom buying me this pair of shoes that I really wanted. I think it was a Saturday afternoon. I was super excited,” Wu recalled. the shoe rack in the living room and I had to do my homework in my bedroom The whole time I was thinking about shoes so I pretended to take a bathroom break just to take another look at the shoes I still remember the sun splashing through a window on the shoe and the warm smell of the room.
Yue recalls her mother also buying shoe magazines for her, which was the real catalyst for her career choice. “When I was about to go to college, all my friends didn’t really know what they wanted to do,” he says. “I read an interview with a shoe designer who said he had a background in industrial design, so I decided that was what I wanted to do.”
Her parents, being semi-traditional Chinese parents, were unsure if a degree in design would lead to stable employment in the future. So Yue and his parents made a compromise and he went to engineering school, where he was able to study industrial design.
“My parents supported me, but design requires talent, and it’s hard to describe,” he explains. “My parents didn’t know if I had talent. I didn’t even know if I had it or not.
Eventually, Yue’s studies took him to the United States, where he went to graduate school and took a course at the famed Pensole Academy, which coincidentally was sponsored by New Balance. “It was just before my visa expired, so I was like ‘what is this? and tried one of the classes,” he laughs. “I was hired as an intern and after a few months I was hired full time.”
The road may have been long and winding, but Yue’s ambitions have never changed, just as her design philosophy has always been the same since day one: “My ultimate goal when designing is to recreate this sensation this Saturday afternoon. That’s all I want to do.” If those who see or buy his sneakers feel the way he felt on that fateful day, Yue will consider his mission accomplished.
This approach also shows how different the references or inspirations of each designer are. While Yue says research is hugely important to his process, it’s recreating that feeling that drives him. Ultimately, he just wants people to be as happy and have as strong an emotional connection to his shoes as when he was younger.
So how does Yue spin his creative gears to bring this moment back to life? “I keep drawing until I get into the zone. It’s no use, I’m scribbling to see where my brain is taking me,” he says. “Then when I feel like I’m at a good stage, I write some of the titles that I would like to see when the shoe drops. They give me a clearer focus when I return to finalizing the sketch.
He also admits a guilty pleasure in drawing. “I’m not going to lie, I love listening to cheesy music. I love pop songs, top 40 charts,” he laughs. “I’m not going to pretend to be cool.”
This modesty is also evident when talking about his surefire success in Refined Future 2002r, which Yue says happened by accident. “Originally, we wanted to make a more traditional premium leather shoe. I sketched the final version during my lunch break,” he explains. “Joe [Grondin] and Brian [Lynn], my colleagues, went to lunch and came to my office and saw what was on my screen. If they hadn’t seen it, I don’t know if I was going to show them the idea or not.
One sneaker that Yue wishes she had a hand in creating and considers one of her favorites is Charlotte Lee’s 327, which burst onto the scene in 2020 as part of the Casablanca x New Balance partnership.
“Charlotte and her team absolutely killed it,” he says. “This shoe is one of the reasons I wanted to move from the performance team to the lifestyle. I wanted to be a part of [moments like that.]”
While a relative newcomer to the lifestyle shoe design game, Yue has certified success under his belt and is already looking to the future. Most of the projects he’s worked on haven’t been released yet, so he can’t say too much. But if they’re anything like the “Refined Future” pack, we can’t wait to see what it has up its sleeves.
