Chocolate Skateboards Celebrates Its 30th Anniversary With A New Balance Collab

Chocolate Skateboards, a subsidiary of Girl, is easily one of the most influential skate collectives of all time. From its formation in 1994 to today, the Los Angeles-based group founded by Mike Carroll and Rick Howard has maintained an applaudable roster of team riders that have left an indelible impact on skate culture. In our world, Chocolate’s sneaker catalog dates all the way back to 2002; the year the first ever Nike SB Dunk collaborations came to light. Now two decades and change later, Chocolate is celebrating its 30th anniversary with their first ever New Balance Numeric capsule.

The delivery includes two takes on the New Balance Numeric 480; a black high-top and sand-colored low-top. The outsoles are what make for a truly special project. Cleverly utilizing the tread pattern, the bottoms of both shoes feature a split-up graphic of a figure dribbling a basketball, designed by LA artist and longtime friend of the brand Geoff McFetridge. Included as a tribute, the same graphic was also used as the title card of Girl Skateboard’s Mouse (1996), a film that featured original Chocolate rider Keenan Milton, who passed away tragically in 2001. Other key touches worth noting include red Chocolate tongue branding, a rope pull tab on the heel of the low-top, and a debossed flag around the collar of the high-top.

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The basketball-inspired graphic makes plenty of sense on the 480. To the uninitiated; the New Balance 480 was originally a basketball shoe released a year prior to the Nike Dunk in the 1980s, championed by many NBA stars of its era like James Worthy and M.L. Carr. It was also the shoe worn by Michael Jordan in a photoshoot now attributed for birthing the iconic Jumpman logo. That’s all to say calling the 480 a Nike Dunk knockoff is an easy was to infuriate New Balance fans.

Steering focus back to the delivery at hand, both Chocolate x New Balance Numeric 480s release October 14th via New Balance and skate shops, retailing for $125 each. See official images below and take advantage of the purchase links in our “Where To Buy” sections on that date.