NEW BALANCE 990RS

As you bounce from Facebook groups to Instagram, to forums, a common term used for searching for shoes is ‘hunting’. Now what happens when the hunter becomes the hunted? This simple statement is the best way I can describe how I acquired these elusive 990’s.

It was April 2018, and I found myself standing in line for the the ‘Legend’ 990v4 set to release at the New Balance San Francisco Flagship store. There were maybe 15 people in line and I was just minding my own business until a gentleman by the name of Eko got in line. I saw them from a distance and thought, “Could it really be?…The 990RS?” As he got closer I stopped him, introduced myself and said, “Please tell these are size 11 or 10.5” and he responded with a devilish grin, “They’re 10.5”.

I rolled my eyes as I was thinking, “Of course they’re my size”. I proceeded to show Eko my collection and how many pairs of this model I had, but he was adamant at first that he would not sell them as he had owned them since the day of release. You could tell he wore them quite a bit, but for the most part the suede was in good condition. I pried and pried to get him to sell them off of his feet, but he denied me.

As we both were leaving after acquiring out 990v4’s, Eko gave me his number and told me to hit him up. I think I gave it 2-3 weeks before trying again to persuade him to sell, but this time it was in my favor! We arranged a meetup and I added these beautiful raspberry-like 990s to the collection. After a good quick cleaning with SneakersER, they’re show-stoppers again!