Back to her roots: Margielyn Didal's New Balance Numeric 272 sneaker is inspired by the Cebuano kakanin 'Puso'
New Balance Numeric has dropped its newest collaboration with Olympian Margielyn Didal: a 272 sneaker inspired by the Filipino rice cake puso.
The shoe has a minimal look to it, donning mostly black and muted colors. The khaki quarter panels feature an embossed cross weave pattern made to look and feel like the coconut leaves used in puso to wrap the rice.
Didal's initials, M.A.D., are found on the tan heel panels on the right shoe, while the area code for Cebu is found on the left one. This durable skate shoe also features a redesigned vulcanized sole and a thin insole, which is clad with prints of the Filipino rice cake.
Why puso?
Didal started skating at the age of 12 while she was selling puso next to a skatepark. In the same year she started skateboarding, she started joining local competitions. Years later, the now 22-year-old has represented the Philippines in multiple occasions, including the 2019 Southeast Asian Games and the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.
For those of you who aren't familiar with the kakanin inspiring the design, puso is a Cebuano rice cake made by boiling rice in a woven pouch of palm leaves.