Exclusive: Why This Ultra-Rare New Balance Sneaker Only Drops Once Every Five Years

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 marginal tweaks to endeavor to improve on perfection. The shoe maintained its cultlike status for years largely thanks to the first few reissues being exclusive to Japan, hence the addition of the ‘JP’ suffix to the silhouette name. Releases went global in 2010, though the fervor surrounding the shoe for those in the know remained steady.

The latest crop of New Balance 1300JP sneakers being constructed in the brand’s Maine production facility.

The five-year cycle allows for the brand’s team to take their time in figuring out what, if anything, there is to improve on. Kubota reveals that when the shoe was originally brought back in 1995 there was no intended target date for release, the brand instead opting to find the best way to reproduce the shoe as accurately as possible while incorporating improvements in the tech and craftsmanship behind the silhouette. Eventually they settled on the five-year strategy, allowing anticipation to build between releases and plenty of time for them to gauge where to take the silhouette for its next release. “Our mindset with this model is that there are no compromises,” he says.

For 2025, the shoe is going through the same line of production in Skowhegan, Maine, that it did 40 years ago. Thirty-six craftsmen work the line and put every single piece of every single shoe—from the Horween leather of the upper to that classic ENCAP midsole—through multiple points of quality inspection to ensure the standard set in 1985 is carried into the modern day. After all, there’s only one chance to get this right before the next drop in 2030.

The New Balance 1300JP launches globally on May 29 for $330.