Here’s How to Cop Concepts’ New Balance 997 ‘Montage’

and have jumped back into the studio, and the latest experiment is pure alchemy. The ‘Montage’ takes one of NB’s most beloved silhouettes and chops it up like a director’s reel – blending textures, tones and familiar Concepts cues into a build that feels like a loose collage of their collaborative legacy without directly pulling from any single release.

The build is classic Concepts mischief: premium pigskin suede smashed up against mesh and pebbled leather, a tonal grey backbone splashed with stray hits of teal, burgundy and cream. It’s the kind of sneaker archaeology that rewards anyone who’s been riding with Concepts since the days or survived the great 'Lobster' riots of the late 2000s.

Down below, ENCAP cushioning keeps the 997’s old-school ride intact, while CNCPTS tongue hits, printed insoles and the stitched NB logo round things out.

For longtime NB tragics, the 997 is a silhouette Concepts knows inside-out. In 2014 they dropped the 997 , a peach-toned premium banger that helped redefine the boutique-colab era. Not long after came , the high-vis 997.5 that turned the entire safety-orange spectrum into a flex. Both pairs vanished on release, cementing Concepts as one of New Balance’s sharpest storytellers.

Early teaser pairs have already floated out, and a broader release is looming, though date and price remain locked behind the curtain. Stay tuned – we’ll drop details the second NB or Concepts crack the vault.

For more on Concepts, sink your teeth into their tastiest collaborations ever.