New Balance 327 'Moonbeam Desert Pink Gum'
Colorway: Moonbeam/Desert Pink/Sea Salt · Style code: MS327ASM · Release date: July 26, 2022 · Price: $100 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: ANB Brand x New Balance 327 'Beige Gum' (MS327AAN) · New Balance 327 'Pastel Blue Zebra' (MS327AI1) · New Balance Aries x New Balance 327 'INVINCIBLE II - Black' (MS327AIR) · New Balance 327 'Leopard' (MS327AN1) · New Balance 327 'Animal Pack - Leopard' (MS327ANA)
The 327 is a deliberate assembly rather than a reissue. When New Balance built it for 2020, the design team went into the archive and took three elements: the toe shape, the outsole and the logo, each from a different 1970s shoe.
The oversized N that runs across the quarter panel comes from the 320. So does the toe, an extended reading of a tip originally drawn to make the shoe look fast standing still. The lugged outsole is lifted from the 355, a trail model built for rough ground, which is why a lifestyle sneaker carries tread that looks over-specified for pavement. The rubber heel wrap draws on the Supercomp along with those two.
None of the three source shoes looks like the 327. Scaled up and recombined, the parts read as contemporary rather than as a retro exercise, which is the trick the design pulls off and the reason the model became a staple rather than a season.
This pair keeps the palette soft, in Moonbeam and Desert Pink over a gum sole.