The Whitaker Group x New Balance 1906U
I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity to take pictures & review this shoe ahead of the release. Something that stood out to me when I pulled these out of the box, was on the back of the tongue, it says 'Willful Bias' which means to ignore something & look the other way, even though you know it's wrong. Knowing TWG & their values as a company, this design runs a lot deeper than a pair of shoes and I tried to display the vision I saw when I held this shoe in hand.
Materials: the base layer of this sneaker is a 🤍, weaved knit material that has a similar aesthetic as wicker 🧺. Moving to the toe cap, there's a dark grey rubber panel (1906U) & a synthetic leather in a smoke grey shade that carries t/o the entire upper. Underneath this material is a grey suede that contrasts against the darker grey hits & creates the paneling for the upper. On the midfoot, there's the N lock in black that is used as both a logo & locking system for your feet. On the back heel, there's a grey cage with a 3m hit beneath it & a yellow tab resting on top. On the tongue, there's a 🩶 panel with WB debossed into it, which is clarified on the back of the tag that says 'Willful Bias/for Community/NB' && lastly on the insole, you'll find a design of a woman who is holding an unbalanced scale with a blindfold on, but she's raising one side. This brings back the statement of the WB, which IMO, shows her awareness & lack of justice for what's happening that is wrong. Overall, this is a beautiful shoe & I'm looking forward to the short film to rollout bc TWG has incredible cinematography & bring a strong message.
Comfort/Sizing: the 1906U is a pretty comfortable model imo. It has a pretty squishy feel, but a smidge more firm than the 1906r. It uses the same outsole as the 2002r, therefore, the comfort will be similar. In terms of sizing, I'd go with your tts in these.
Overall Opinion: TWG always does an incredible job with bringing an impactful & meaningful story with each of their designs. I'm looking forward to the rollout as these come in 2 cws, however, no release date has been confirmed yet 🫣 don't 😴🏆🫡