Launching on April 5th, 2022, the Balenciaga Runner Sculpture is an extremely limited-edition Balenciaga Object. A total of 20 units are available in retail locations including Balenciaga Beijing, Beverly Hills, Dubai, Hong Kong, London, Monaco, Paris, Shanghai, and Tokyo stores, on balenciaga.com, and on balenciaga.cn.

The Balenciaga Runner Sculpture recasts the Runner Sneaker—a patchwork of athletic and DIY references introduced in 2021—as a life-sized, entirely hand-crafted, inflexible piece in glazed ceramic. Each unit was both carved and modelled by hand, fired, then painted to affect a worn shoe’s subtle colourings using a traditional Italian maiolica technique by hand, then fired again.

In its paradoxical fixedness, the Runner Sculpture shows the Runner’s attention to signs of wear and codes of motion, such as layered sport textures, distressed fabric edges, exposed stitching, and intentionally bubbling technical adhesive. Balenciaga Objects are produced outside of the fashion collections calendar and range from exclusive artworks to practical, everyday items, all of them timeless. A life-sized Balenciaga Track Sculpture in silver metal was the first Object in the series, followed by multiple sneaker styles reimagined in laser-etched glass cubes.