I MUST HAVE THIS SHOE!!!Developed by New Balance Japan, check out "The Mask" pack.
It consists of 3 New Balance 576's, each coming in strong colors, inspired by traditional Chinese Opera masks. Embossed graphics, premium suede, patent leather, reflective 3M material, mask embroideries and many more details.
A little info about Chinese Opera. The main color in a facial makeup symbolizes the disposition of the character. The facial makeups date a long time back to the Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties at least. Simple patterns of painted faces are found in tomb murals of that age. During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), improvements were made in the skills of drawing and in preparing the paints, leading to the whole set of colorful facial patterns that we see in today's Jingju (Beijing Opera). The art of Bian Lian (literally translated as "face changing") is a part of Szechuan Opera dating back to the Qing Dynasty in the 18th century. Bian Lian involves very fast mask changes to signify different emotions.
Now that you're super educated about chinese masks you, like me, may ask why they didn't include a color or a mask changing capability into the shoe pack. Wouldn't that have been cool!?! It would have maintained the theme and added an element that no other shoe company has really developed yet. Colors that change due to temperature, or masks that change when they move would have really set this shoe off. This is what NB should be doing with the Ndividual pack, by the way...
