‘Evangelion’ Reveals Sleek New Balance Sneaker Collection

These days, sneaker heads may be busy looking at adidas, but New Balance is ready to catch anime lovers off guard. After all, the company is ready to go in on an anime line, and it turns out that Neon Genesis Evangelion makes for some dope kicks.

Not long ago, New Balance shared a slew of photos which confirmed its collection of Evangelion sneakers. The anime has inspired three shoes for an impending collaboration that fans are going to go mad for.

As you can see below, the kicks are based on New Balance’s Fresh Foam Cruz silhouette. Each model references one of the Evangelion Units, so fans can pick the mecha they wish to represent.

According to reports, the shoes will be called FIRST IMPACT, SECOND IMPACT, and THIRD IMPACT. They are expected to go live in Japan on October 12. At this point, there is no word on whether the Evangelion shoes will be sold internationally, but fans are keeping their fingers crossed.

Fans can go ahead and pick out which of these shoes they’d like to nab. The first shoe features a purple-green palate with matching laces. The second moves into a pink-orange color scheme, and the third goes a whole new route with its black aesthetic. Each shoe features tech jargon from Evangelion, and NERV has its logo hidden on the shoes’ tongue.

Neon Genesis Evangelion debuted as a television series in 1995-1996 with two films following in 1997. Recently, a film series went live re-imagining the franchise with Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth acting as an abridged retelling of the first 24 episodes of the anime with pieces of new animation. The End of Evangelion, the second film, incorporates some of Death & Rebirth‘s original animation and offers an alternate take on the original show’s controversial finale.

The anime follows Shinji Ikari, a boy recruited by his father to pilot the giant mech Evangelion in the fight against giant monsters known as Angels in the futuristic city of Tokyo-3. Shinji is unwilling to bear this responsibility and is often conflicted about taking part in a war. This conflict of emotions leads to many introspective episodes which cover a range of religious, philosophical, and existential concepts. Today, those themes have pushed Evangelion to become one of anime’s top titles with a reputation that proceeds it.