A little over ten years ago he left us Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple and one of the most influential people of recent times. Around his figure there are a multitude of myths, legends and questions. And speaking of questions, few things raise more questions around Steve than the subject of his clothing. Why would a man with so many resources always dress the same?
Steve Jobs and the unknown about his clothing
Jobs was an extremely methodical man and it was shown abroad as a very person minimalist. His clothes were for him a uniform. For the last decades of his life we saw him wearing exactly the same outfit: a black turtleneck sweater, slightly baggy jeans, and a pair of gray sneakers. According to the genius, having multiple items of clothing repeated in his closet allowed him to save time and devote his efforts to the things that really interested him.
And within his clothing, the sneakers worn by the Apple CEO have become a legend. Steve wore brand sneakers New Balance, specifically the 9XX series. The first version of these shoes was released in 1982, and they were the first pair of shoes to cost more than $ 100 (about $ 300 today if we adjust for inflation).
Did Jobs influence the development of the NB 992?
Steve spent years using a New Balance 991, and it was in fact the ones he was wearing that June 29, 2007, when he presented the first-generation iPhone at MacWorld. That day was one of the last that we could see Jobs with that New Balance model, since, at the end of the year, he would finally use the New Balance 992, which are the ones that have gone down in history as “Steve Jobs’s shoes.”
The New Balance 992 were created to celebrate the centenary of the brand American. It was a special shoe, because in addition to being able to choose its size, you could also choose the width of the last. Something quite new, since this feature is usually only available in shoes that are bought to measure.
However, the legend of Jobs and the New Balance goes a little further. They say that New Balance CEO Jim Davis turned to Steve for his opinion before putting them on the market. Jobs was a fan of this brand of sneakers, so it would not be unreasonable for such an encounter to occur. The information is unofficial, and many employees of the company assure that the meeting never happened, although fans and scholars of the brand assure the opposite.
Steve Jobs’ favorite tennis shoes are back
The 992s weren’t as successful as the brand hoped, and they stopped producing at year 2010. Still, the death of the founder of Apple, a year later, encouraged many collectors to purchase these sneakers. Finally, the New Balance 992 they returned last 2020. It was a surprise that not many people expected. But despite his return, acquiring this pair of sneakers is not easy. If you want to get hold of a pair of these sneakers, you are going to have to get up early and be alert, since New Balance produces very few units of this legend, which causes them to run out of store shelves and their website in a matter of seconds.
