BOSTON / STYLE

Ayo Edebiri and New Balance Go Back to Boston

Campaign that didn’t really need a complicated concept.

By Maria Pri

Sep 13, 2026

02 min read

Ayo Edebiri for New Balance. Photographed by Tyler Mitchell. Courtesy of New Balance.

Some campaigns need a 40-page deck to explain the concept. This one needed Boston.

Ayo Edebiri is New Balance’s newest ambassador, and for their first campaign together the brand took her back to Dorchester, where she grew up.

Which is almost suspiciously neat: New Balance was founded in Boston more than a century ago, and Edebiri has talked about the brand as something that was simply part of the city when she was growing up.

The campaign follows her through familiar neighbourhoods and everyday Boston settings wearing the 574. Tyler Mitchell photographed it; Danielle Goldberg - longtime stylist- did the styling. That’s basically why it works.

There’s no need to manufacture a very elaborate “authenticity” story when the connection is already there. The city belongs to both of them, so they left it in the pictures.

More fashion campaigns should probably know when to stop explaining themselves.