Stone Island and New Balance’s latest sneaker collaboration is inspired by an archival fabric
A first look at the ‘Stone Island x New Balance 998 Made In USA’ sneaker, which combines Stone Island’s material innovations with a 1993 New Balance silhouette

Stone Island’s headquarters in Ravarino, Italy, are a laboratory for fabric: since its founding in 1982 by material innovator Massimo Osti, the label has had a unique set-up whereby prototypers, dyeing experts, technicians and fabric researchers all work together at the Modena HQ without the need for outside factories or producers.
‘There’s an interaction between the research and development department, the product, the designers, the dyeing process,’ Sasha Kanevskyi, Stone Island’s design director, told Wallpaper* when we toured the headquarters earlier this year (the Italian brand was a recipient of a Wallpaper* Design Award 2025). ‘There is not one separate department working on their own – everyone influences each other.’
First look: ‘Stone Island x New Balance 998 Made In USA’ sneaker
Revealed today (17 March 2025), the latest sneaker in a long-running collaboration with Boston sportswear brand New Balance finds its roots in a pioneering archival fabric developed by Osti in 1984. Titled ‘Raso Gommato’, the material – a satin-weave military fabric with a polyurethane coating which makes it water- and windproof – is one of Stone Island’s foundational fabrics, inspiring a cotton-canvas version for the brand’s S/S 2025 collection.
It is this new fabric which makes up the collaborative sneaker, its silhouette drawn from a design from New Balance’s own archive: the 998, first introduced in 1993 and the debut shoe to feature the brand’s Abzorb cushioning. Crafted from the hard-wearing polyurethane-coated cotton, the shoe’s colourway is inspired by those found in Stone Island’s S/S 2025 collection – namely, rich hues of mauve, plum, and ‘copper maroon’.
The design also features Stone Island’s iconic ‘Compass’ emblem on the tongue – a longtime signature found on all of the Italian brand’s garments and accessories – while a translucent sole features ‘Stone Island Product Research’, in a nod to the Ravarino HQ.
The ‘Stone Island x New Balance 998 Made In USA’ sneaker will be available later this month on March 27, 2025 at selected Stone Island stores – including outposts in Milan, London and Seoul – as well as the Stone Island website.
stoneisland.com
newbalance.co.uk
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Jack Moss is the Fashion Features Editor at Wallpaper*, joining the team in 2022. Having previously been the digital features editor at AnOther and digital editor at 10 and 10 Men magazines, he has also contributed to titles including i-D, Dazed, 10 Magazine, Mr Porter’s The Journal and more, while also featuring in Dazed: 32 Years Confused: The Covers, published by Rizzoli. He is particularly interested in the moments when fashion intersects with other creative disciplines – notably art and design – as well as championing a new generation of international talent and reporting from international fashion weeks. Across his career, he has interviewed the fashion industry’s leading figures, including Rick Owens, Pieter Mulier, Jonathan Anderson, Grace Wales Bonner, Christian Lacroix, Kate Moss and Manolo Blahnik.
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