Reactions to a “correct answer” comparison pic for middle-aged men’s fashion — 5ch: “New Balance just doesn’t work”

Background and Key Points

Reactions to a “correct answer” comparison pic for middle-aged men’s fashion — 5ch: “New Balance just doesn’t work”

New Balance sneakers occupy a specific niche in Japanese menswear that this thread doesn’t spell out: over the past decade-plus, models like the 990-series and 992 became a default “smart casual” shoe for Japanese men, worn with tailored jackets and slacks in a way that would read as too casual in a lot of Western office settings. That’s the backdrop for posters arguing over whether sneakers-with-a-jacket looks sharp or sloppy — it’s less about the brand itself and more about whether Japan’s own casual-formal norms have shifted enough to make it acceptable, a shift a few posters explicitly tie to “since the earthquake” (i.e., post-2011 lifestyle and workwear changes).

The actual split in the thread isn’t “sneakers: yes or no” — nearly everyone agrees fit and tucking matter more than any single item. The disagreement is generational and stylistic: some posters treat sneakers-with-tailoring as an outdated or foreign (specifically Korean street-fashion) import that doesn’t suit older Japanese men’s builds, while others say it’s now mainstream enough — cited examples include talent managers and startup founders — that resisting it just marks you as out of touch.

What outside readers will likely miss is that the original comparison image itself was flagged by posters as methodologically bogus — different poses, framing, and expressions — meaning much of the “correct answer” debate is really about a manipulated before/after, not a neutral fashion rule. Also uncommented-on: New Balance’s Japan-specific marketing push (one poster notes the “bad” photo is literally from a New Balance ad) means the sneaker’s ubiquity in these images partly reflects advertising reach, not organic street trends.