New Balance and London jeweller Bleue Burnham are back for the second part of a collaboration built around craftsmanship, nature and making nice things properly.
It began with The Flimby Garden, a permanent outdoor space created by Bleue Burnham for the people working at New Balance’s Made in UK factory in Cumbria. It’s somewhere to sit, switch off and enjoy a bit of nature between shifts, basically. Now those same ideas have found their way onto the 991v1.
The shoe plays with the contrast between order and wildness. Its familiar, precisely constructed lines are joined by a free-flowing ‘wild garden’ stitch, loosely inspired by the planting at Flimby. Each pattern is applied individually, meaning no two pairs are quite the same. A nice meeting point between the shoemaking expertise of New Balance and Bleue Burnham’s own craft-led approach.
Two versions are on the way. First up is a particularly handsome brown pigskin suede edition, followed in December by another made using thick, premium black leather. Proper winter colours in a classic NB silhouette, and built from hardy materials.
Keeping the gardening theme alive, the campaign stars Monty Don, which feels both entirely appropriate and slightly surreal. Having already appeared in content around The Flimby Garden, Monty provides the link between the landscape and the footwear it inspired. He wears them well too, obviously.
New Balance has produced its Made in UK line at Flimby since 1991, and the factory remains central to the brand’s reputation for well-made footwear. This collaboration adds something a little less predictable to that heritage: part formal garden, part controlled chaos and part very good trainer.
The New Balance x Bleue Burnham Made in UK 991v1 in brown pigskin suede will be unveiled on 4 September 2026 and released exclusively through bleueburnham.com on 12 September. Early access will be available to Bleue Burnham mailing-list subscribers on a first come, first served basis.
The black premium-grain leather version follows in December 2026.
