New Balance 440 x Welcome Skate Store

We’re stoked to introduce our first ever footwear collaboration, on one of our perennially favoured models - the New Balance Numeric 440. The colour way we've created is based on Leeds Bridge and the little known story of Louis Le Prince ’The Father of Cinematography’.

In 1866 Louis Aimé August Le Prince moved from his home town of Metz in France to Leeds where he began experimenting in cinematography, in 1888 he patented a single lens camera with which he filmed people crossing Leeds Bridge, creating the world's first moving images(click the image below to see the footage).

Unfortunately he was never able to demonstrate his creation as he mysteriously disappeared from a train he was travelling on just outside of Dijon where he was visiting family prior to a planned trip to New York where he was due to premiere his invention. There are many theories as to what became of Le Prince and unfortunately it is unlikely that we will ever know the truth, but you can read more about him and his story here.

The moving image has been and continues to be vital to the evolution of both the act of skateboarding and development of skateboard culture so we felt this was a story worth sharing, in no small part because Leeds Bridge where those first images were shot still stands today, just a short walk from Welcome.

The bridge is the main inspiration for the colour way - the leather and nubuck upper is coloured after York Stone which is not only a part of the bridge but part of buildings, pavements and skate spots across the city and the world.

The blues represent the metal work and there are nods to other design elements of the bridge, the 3 stars on the toe are from the Leeds Coats of Arms, the tongue labelling features a typeface recreated from the plaques highlighting the manufacturers of the steelwork and other invested parties, the footbeds are photographs of the stone flags as they are today, even the murky translucent blue of the outsole is in there to represent the river Aire. The tricolour stripe running down the tongue is the French flag, front and centre in tribute to the birth nation of Louis Le Prince.

The New Balance Numeric 440 x Welcome will be supported by our shared team riders - Dale Starkie and Will Sheerin. Stay tuned for the video… in the meantime you can shop for the shoes here, and the accompanying apparel collection here.