Shinichi Kubota, vice-president of New Balance Japan, tells GQ that the idea of reissuing a performance sneaker didn’t really exist in the ’80s and early ’90s. But a few years after the 1300’s initial drop, New Balance developed a lifestyle branch and began to consider bringing back older silhouettes. “Back then, we didn’t think to bring back any Made in USA models,” he says, “But after the lifestyle business was established globally…this is when we saw the opportunity to look into bringing the 1300 back.”
The first reissue of the 1300 finally came in 1995, a decade after its original release. It began a now-traditional five-year cadence, a rare thing in the sneaker world. Every half decade, the brand puts the 1300 back out into the world, each time with…