HOW I GOT INTO A RELATIONSHIP WITH THE NEW BALANCE REBEL V4S

A running shoe that's ready to commit

- Shivangi Lolayekar

Gliding into the New Balance FuelCell Rebel v4s was like kickstarting a romantic relationship. We'd first met at the American brand's flagship store on Mumbai's hot retail street of Linking Road in Bandra.

The white shoe, covered with a 'bleached lime glo on the upper and hot mango' accents at the base, was an instant giveaway of the sneakers' imposing personality. Albeit a little too loud for my liking—I was more of a basic white or black dressed-up performance shoe kind-of-person—the popular trend of wearing neon kicks to offset your neutral running gear had me convinced of giving this pair a shot and choosing it from the five other colourway candidates.

The shoe’s silhouette, in itself, was also unlike the stock you see around. A wide midsole on a relatively low 30mm stack, with only a marginally tapered toe box on a 24mm stack, lent it an eye-catching geometrical structure that challenged me to dispel my notion that thinner silhouettes would grip my feet better and give me a more efficient output. While the v4’s looked bulkier than most of its ilk—and the broadness took a minute for my narrow feet to adapt to—they were extremely lightweight. Due to the elongated breadth of the shoe, however, people with slender feet had dismissed the sneakers on the internet, as being too wide. So, as first impressions go, it wouldn't have necessarily been an instant green flag for me but if opposites do attract then I was probably on to something here.

The First Date