New Balance 933: Skate Tech, Dad Shoe Comfort
Price: $130
Why Buy?
The New Balance 933 offers great design, great comfort, and great materials at an extremely reasonable price.
Why Avoid?
The New Balance 933 has major quality control issues, and may take some digging to find.
Specs
| Model | 933 |
| Height | Low |
| Materials | Suede / Leather / Rubber / EVA |
| Size | 13 Wide |
| Weight | 509 g / 1 lb 1.9 oz |
| Construction | Cemented |
| Country of Origin | Vietnam |
History
While he is obviously in a different league, I think I can understand the problem that Andrew Reynolds was facing. The skater, who is so accomplished he’s earned the nickname “the Boss,” was starting to get some years under his belt. Traditional skate sneakers, like those made by his former sponsors Vans and Emerica, were basically flat pieces of rubber.
As Reynolds (and I…) got older, this just didn’t work. Knees that could absorb impact start giving out. This led to a multi-year process of examining different sneaker brands to find what could offer the support he needed to not need ice packs every day.
Perhaps fittingly, the old man went to the shoe most famous for being the old man sneaker – New Balance. He was attracted to their innovations in padding, and structured uppers – particularly in the 1010 line and the 99X line.
New Balance, in an effort to sign one of the biggest names ever to ride a board, basically offered Reynolds cart blanche. The brand from Boston gave him near-complete control.
This led to the creation of the New Balance 933. A combination of the 990 series and the Numeric line, and maybe the most structured skateboard sneaker of all time.
While it’s a shame that Vu, who came up with a 99X-themed skate shoe last year, didn’t get any credit, that is one of my favorite sneakers in my collection. I love the design, with the comfort being the only thing holding me back on wearing them more.
Does the New Balance 933 finally crack the perfect balance of skate look and New Balance comfort? Let’s dive in and find out.
Build Quality
Before I get into the actual style of the sneaker, I have to flag a nearly fatal flaw for my pair of New Balance 933. This pair had a major defect—misaligned eyelets and no lace holes punched in the lining, making it impossible to lace up past the fourth eyelet. This would be bad enough, but even worse the interior padding had no holes cut for the laces. It was literally impossible to lace these up beyond the bottom four lace holes.
I did want to get this review up, and my size had sold out, so I ended up punching new holes in the foam and cutting the interior lining to allow the laces through.
I have not seen anyone else report this in their reviews or pictures, so it’s likely that my particular pair was a one-off problem. Still, this sort of QC is not acceptable for a sneaker that is supposed to represent the pinnacle of a brand like New Balance Numeric.
Looks
Upper
The upper of the New Balance 933 clearly shows its inspiration from the 99X models, especially in this “gray days” colorway. The majority of the upper is made from overlapping suede panels. A style we’ve all become extremely familiar with. The grey they use is a couple shades darker than most “Castlerock Gray” pairs we’ve seen before, but is still undeniably a New Balance.
Breaking up these suede panels are a few mesh panels for a bit of ventilation. These are much smaller than you’d find on a 990v6 – if they were too big there would be durability concerns while skating. To help further protect for durability, the New Balance 933’s mesh panels have a bit of overlay reinforcement at key areas.
Speaking of reinforcements, at the key high wear spot for ollies and kick flips, New Balance added not only the traditional extra stitching, but they treated the suede in a small patch for slightly extra durability. Will it change anything? Probably not. But I really appreciate the effort.
Accenting these main panels are a white “N” on the midfoot and a reflective Numeric logo (NB#) on the heel. There is also a leather panel just below your ankle. Moving onto the smaller details, the 933 printed onto the heel to match the 99X series, and a small portion of the plastic heel cap is exposed on the very rear of the sneaker.
Finishing everything off, the shared 933/New Balance/Reynolds logo can be found on the tongue and on the interior heel.
Mid- and Outsole
Taking a look at the bottom of the 933, you’ll find an extremely chunky midsole for a skate shoe. It’s very noticeable in hand – the bottom of the rubber outsole to the top of the plastic stability cap is over 2 inches. At least double what most skate shoes have.
Diving in closer you’ll find the midsole is a dual density design, with the harder foam represented in a cream color up front and the softer white foam in the rear. Also, in the rear you’ll find two dark grey panels put there for stability. One along the top of the midsole, the other at the very bottom. The top panel is something that Andrew Reynolds took directly from the 99X line, and is called the Controlled Reaction Device.
There are a few easter eggs on the midsole. Around back is a very small version of Reynolds’ logo. More interesting, to me at least, is up front. The rubber midsole wraps up at the toe, mimicking a running shoe. Reynolds has said that this is there so that if you have a closet full of New Balance sneakers, the 933 wouldn’t look out of place. Finally, there is a small exposed slice of Abzorb foam, in red on this colorway.
Underneath the outsole is fairly complicated for a skate shoe, which would typically just be a single piece of rubber. The exterior ring is done in a very hard black rubber. There is a herringbone pattern in the rear, and up front 10 years significant to Reynold’s life. Inside that black ring is a translucent panel, also in herringbone, which allows you to see the internal foams. There is even a bit exposed under your heel.
Summary
Conceptually, I adore the New Balance 933. When designing this sneaker, New Balance and Andrew Reynolds just about perfectly hit the right balance between a traditional running shoe and a skate shoe. Especially in this 933 Gray Days. It takes nearly everything I loved about the Vu 440v2, but added more comfort and higher end materials to it.
From a design standpoint there is extremely little to criticize. These are easy to wear and easy to style. In fact, I’d go so far as to say they are actually easier to style than the classic 990 line. While I might still personally prefer the 991v2, I wouldn’t fault anyone for saying these are the most versatile New Balance period.
However, it’s hard to be too enthusiastic about them given the QC. In addition to the major issue related to the construction, this pair had paint chips on one sneaker’s midsole and what looks like burn marks on the other.
They pulled so much from the 990 line, maybe they should have pulled the factory too.
Fit & Comfort
Fit
The New Balance 933 is designed first and foremost as a performance sneaker. Knowing that, like nearly every other pure-performance skate sneaker, these run extremely narrow. Thankfully, these come in two widths.
If you are planning on actually skating these, and have standard to narrow width feet, you might want to go with the standard width. For everyone else, I would strongly recommend going with the wide width. Going wide with these doesn’t actually change the footbed shape at all. The change is that they give you a bit more space in the upper.
Personally, I found the wide to be average for a sneaker. Maybe even slightly on the narrow side, given the padding, though that’ll loosen up with wear.
With the width out of the way, I’d encourage you to go true to size for the overall size. Some people might find these run slightly longer than they would like, but given the narrowness of the shape, it’s better to just take a little extra room in the toe box.
My standard sneaker size in something like a Jordan 1 is 13, and I got these in a 13 Wide and I’m certain I got the correct size.
Comfort
I was surprised just how comfortable the New Balance 933 was. Of course, the whole idea was comfort, but it’s still a skate shoe and other reviewers had said they were not blown away.
Sure, it isn’t FuelCell foam or anything like that, but the combination of the high-quality insole and triple foam layers means you have plenty of squish. Even better, they offer great arch support and have shown to be supportive over many hours of wear. Even better, the padding is soft without feeling like you’ve wrapped a sweater around your ankle.
One thing I will flag, these things are stiff. Not only do they have a shank plate, but they easily have 5X the thickness of something like a pair of Vans. Personally, this didn’t bother me. However, I’m also used to wearing dress shoes and thick soled boots with little to no sole flex. If you like hyper flexible shoes, these might give you fits.
As far as comfort goes, I would have no concerns wearing these all day.
As for actually skating in the New Balance 933, I did take these out for a quick ride. While I would encourage you to look at someone who has more current experience than I do, I will say that while the comfort is outstanding, the board feel is near zero.
Materials & Construction
Materials
The New Balance 933 is made with high quality materials overall, especially given the price point.
Nearly all of the upper is made with cow suede panels. This is going to be less stretchy than the pig suede they use in their MADE line, but should offer better durability. The single leather panel is actually really nice and thick. I’d love to see a pair down the line that primarily comes in that material.
Beyond that, the mesh on the upper is poly and nylon – though feels extremely durable. Similarly, the N on the side is also entirely man-made materials, as is the logo on the tongue. Both of these are perfectly acceptable for these panels.
Around back, the reflective heel cap feels a bit cheap, but that was probably a trade off for the high reflectivity.
Around the collar, dense padding hides a hard plastic heel counter for added support. Speaking of foam, under your foot is a really nice closed cell insole.
The midsole of the New Balance 933 is extremely complicated for a skate shoe. The sole is cup shaped, but is made of an extremely hard foam up front (in cream on this pair) and a soft EVA in the back (in white on this pair). Inside of this cup sole is a swath of Abzorb – a combination of rubber and EVA. Keeping it all together is a shank plate of plastic.
Finishing the sneaker off, the outsole is made of a fairly durable rubber.
Construction
Despite the cup sole looks, the New Balance 933 is made using a cemented construction. This means that the outsole is glued onto the upper using contact cement. This should offer better flexibility than most skate shoes, though durability will be the tradeoff.
Again, I have to mention my concerns with the construction of the rest of the sneaker. For a sneaker that uses otherwise excellent materials, seeing that this pair arrived basically unwearable is a real let down.
Pricing & Value
The New Balance 933 comes in at an extremely reasonable price point of $130. While that is among the most expensive skate shoes you can buy, the tech in this sneaker is really more of a running sneaker. Those are consistently in the $150 range, and come with worse materials.
Right after launch these were extremely hard to get, and were going over retail. However, the production has finally caught up with demand and now it’s pretty easy to find your size if you do a bit of digging. In fact, I was able to get these for 15% off and no sales tax during site-wide sale.
While I’m not sure if this particular colorway will drop much, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the black and olive pair on Joe’s New Balance Outlet before too long. Considering these are a good value even at retail, they are a great value at anything less.
Wrap Up
In nearly every way, the New Balance 933 is an amazing skate sneaker. There are great materials, great design, and – while this might be a drawback for some but is great for me – the best padding I’ve ever felt in a skate sneaker. Even better, this Gray Days colorway takes the great vision from the Vu 440v2 and applies it to a much more comfortable sneaker.
Unfortunately, it is let down by the build quality. I’m sure this style of sneaker is new for the factories that Numeric uses, and hopefully that means after this initial run quality will improve. However, I would love to see a MADE version. I know it’d inevitably cost a bit more, but this is a near perfect skate shoe let down by the thing that New Balance does best – build quality.