Teddy Santis Trades His Comfort Zone For A Carbon Plate

Aime Leon Dore and New Balance built their first real running capsule around the FuelCell Rebel v5 and SC Elite v5, trading heritage sil for race day tools.

Aime Leon Dore has spent the better part of a decade reworking New Balance archive profile into something closer to a New York uniform. The 550, the 990, the 993, the RC56, the 991: all of it has traded on heritage shapes and premium materials rather than raw athletic show. That approach shifts noticeable with the label’s new release. Aime Leon Dore and New Balance have built a running specific capsule around the FuelCell Rebel v5 and the FuelCell SC Elite v5, two current, competition grade models rather than retro reissues, and the shift says as much about where the partnership is heading as the shoes themselves do.

Pair of New Balance running shoes in deep navy blue with bright yellow accents, blue laces and thick black sculpted midsoles.

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The relation between Aime Leon Dore and New Balance dates back to 2019, and it deepened considerable once founder Teddy Santis was named creative director of New Balance’s Made in USA line, a role that put him inside the company’s product decisions rather than simply licensing its shapes. Most of what came out of that arrangement leaned lifestyle: co designed models like the RC56, seasonal takes on the 991 and 471, and city specific hue stories built for people who were never going to log a training block in them. This capsule breaks that pattern. Rather than another archive rework, Aime Leon Dore reached into New Balance’s current FuelCell range, the line the brand actually races in, and applied its own color language to two models built for serious mileage.

The tincture story across both shoes points directly at that context. A blue and orange palette runs through the capsule, a reference the brand has tied to New York City’s running calendar and the buildup toward the New York City Marathon each fall. It is a specific, local reference point rather than a generic sport aesthetic, in keeping with how Aime Leon Dore has always approached New Balance: filtered through a New York lens first, performance category second.

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The FuelCell Rebel v5 anchors the capsule as the everyday trainer, the shoe meant for the bulk of a runner’s weekly volume rather than a single race effort. The collaboration version arrives in a royal blue mesh upper that fades into black across the midsole and outsole, built on FantomFit mesh construction for breathable. The lateral “N” logo carries Aime Leon Dore’s floral mark worked into it, a recurring signature across the label’s New Balance output, while highlighter green hits appear on the ALD branding at the tongue and heel along with the FuelCell logo on the midsole. A custom co branded sock-liner rounds out the interior detail. Underneath the style, the shoe retains the platform’s actual selling point: FuelCell foam known among runners for its responsive energy return, position somewhere between a full cushion daily trainer and a tempo shoe rather than commit fully to either category.

 

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The FuelCell SC Elite v5 sits at the opposite end of the capsule as New Balance’s premier race day option, the model built specific for competition rather than training miles. The Aime Leon Dore version takes on a deep green mesh upper with a black gradient that climbs further up the shoe than the Rebel’s treatment does, extend across the toe box and heel and down into the stacked midsole. Orange Aime Leon Dore branding shows up on the tongue and lateral heel, a more restrained hit than the Rebel’s neon accents, matching the SC Elite’s role as the more serious, less casual half of the pairing. The carbon plate underfoot remains New Balance’s actual show argument for the shoe: the SC Elite platform has been worn by competitive runners at major marathons, and that pedigree is the reason its inclusion in a lifestyle brand’s capsule carries more weight than a typical retro rework would.

An apparel range built around the two shoes rounds out the release, running well past standard bridge merchandise into utility vests, technical outerwear, and accessories designed to function on an actual run rather than simply reference one, alongside more familiar tees and hoodies. That range arrived first, ahead of the footwear itself, signaling that this capsule was conceived as a full kit rather than a pair of shoes with matching graphics tacked on afterward.

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Aime Leon Dore’s own channels got the capsule first. The apparel dropped in early June, with the FuelCell Rebel v5 and FuelCell SC Elite v5 following through Aime Leon Dore’s webstore and flagship locations on July 9, priced at $150 and $270 respectively, both in unisex sizing. New Balance then brought the pack to its own site more broadly, with the wider release landing on NewBalance.com on August 14 under style codes MFCXB1ND for the Rebel v5 in Atlantic Blue and MRCEL3HX for the SC Elite v5 in Nordic Green, at the same price points. That two stage rollout, ALD exclusive first, New Balance wide release second, has become standard practice for the pair’s bigger collaborations, giving loyal ALD customers a head start before the shoes reach New Balance’s larger audience.