Dave, Chase Young and Andrew Reynolds Paint a Picture of New Balance

In celebration of their annual festival of the colour Grey, New Balance presents Grey Days, a seven-minute film told in seven episodes, each portraying a different aspect of the brand’s history.

UK rapper Dave, NFL star Chase Young, skateboarding legend Andrew Reynolds, and a host of other brand enthusiasts and affiliates (including a number of ‘can you name them all?’ D.C. icons in the roller-rink episode) combine to paint a picture of a company with tentacles that reach deep into a thousand subcultures. 

The film takes in the popularity of the brand with different style tribes, the company’s running heritage, its place in DMV folklore, the shoes’ technical prowess and the mythology surrounding the genesis of the iconic 990. 

Grey Days acts as a primer to all things New Balance and a series of ‘hands in the air moments’ for those in the know. 

We're transported from baggage reclaim to running track, roller-rink to Japanese onsen, midnight movie to the stunning rockscape of Marseille's Calanques, and even briefly to outer space, as we encounter the cultural impact of the shoes with different age groups, languages, and even species.

The film, shot and artfully framed in black and white (or is that grey?) 16mm, is the antithesis of the increasingly celebrity-dominated and bells and whistles-laden content we see elsewhere. It opts instead for visual simplicity and natural dialogue as the cast of New Balance lovers and affiliates shoots the breeze about 'the greys' in a world that recalls the clarity and cool of early 1990s independent cinema. 

The campaign, from American Haiku, was written in collaboration with creative directors Thom Glover and Daniel Wolfe, alongside food and beverage director Elliott Power, and director of photography Norm Li, with perfectly realised 1960s retro animation from Stray and still photography by Samuel Bradley

“This film celebrates not only what Grey means to us as a brand, but also what it means to New Balance consumers. It recognises sub-cultural New Balance fans who have stood by our brand and the emblem of Grey for generations,” said Chris Davis, chief marketing officer and senior vice president of merchandising at New Balance. “It also recognizes the ubiquity of the colour Grey, appealing to people everywhere from supermodels in London, to dads in Ohio, to sneaker connoisseurs in Tokyo. Grey is a colour for all that represents authenticity, versatility, and timelessness, carrying our heritage into the future.”

In addition to the full-length film, which will run in theatres and online in the US, the campaign will be released as individual scenes. A 60-second trailer will play in cinemas across the UK, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, and print and out-of-home executions will run across Europe, Asia and in Thrasher magazine in the US.