Photo-Illustration: The Strategist; Photos: Getty Images, Retailers
New York is still buzzing after Zohran Mamdani’s big win on Tuesday in the Democratic primary for mayor. The 33-year-old candidate ran an impressive grassroots campaign to beat Andrew Cuomo in an upset that has fascinated journalists, political analysts, and podcast hosts around the country. His win is undoubtedly linked to his cool factor and his talent for energizing volunteers, both by trading campaign merch for canvassing and by consistently showing up in public to talk to everyday New Yorkers. On June 20, these efforts included a publicized walk of the entire length of Manhattan — a distance of about 13 miles — from Inwood to Battery Park.
Though he’s better than most politicians at finding suits that fit, Mamdani’s professional style is understated, and his footwear of choice is usually leather dress shoes or boots. But for such a long walk, he switched to a more comfortable pair of metallic silver New Balances; they looked a lot like the sneakers made by Asics, Salomon, and Nike that I have been seeing all spring and summer on all sorts of stylish people. I noticed the shoes immediately when they flashed onscreen around three seconds into the YouTube edit of his walk. And then I watched the clip over and over until I was able to get a screenshot that would help me identify the exact pair.
At first I thought Mamdani was wearing New Balance 740s, but the closer I looked at multiple screenshots from the video and an actual in-focus photograph from the New York Times, I realized that the laces on Mamdani’s New Balances are black, not white, and there is a bumpy section of dark gray rubber on the inner arch. I scoured the New Balance website but came up empty-handed, and eBay, Depop, and Poshmark didn’t turn up anything conclusive (I also emailed a press contact at the Mamdani campaign to inquire but haven’t heard back). Finally a StockX search led me to the exact pair, confirmed by a 360-degree rotating view of the sneakers that showed the dark gray rubber detail.
I am no sneakerhead, so I asked two of my sportier colleagues, Strategist associate editor Jeremy Rellosa and newsletter editor Ashley Wolfgang, to weigh in on what Mamdani’s shoe choice says about him. “The first thought I had is that Zohran is truly just using some old gym shoes very earnestly,” says Rellosa, who recalls owning the same pair in college back in 2014. He and Wolfgang agreed that Mamdani’s New Balances feel adjacent to the silver sneaker trend but aren’t at the center of it. Which is an enviable vibe for any politician’s shoes to project: cool but not too cool, young and handsome but still practical, and definitely not exorbitantly priced.
The Strategist is designed to surface useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Every product is independently selected by our team of editors, whom you can read about here. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change.
