One-of-one custom New Balance 550 set with 34 real pallasite meteorite fragments, made by MattB Customs for Netflix's Don't Look Up

Netflix x MattB Customs: New Balance 550s Made with a 4.5 Billion-Year-Old Meteorite

To mark the release of the Netflix film Don't Look Up, Netflix and Sotheby's asked MattB Customs to create a one-of-one pair of New Balance 550s using real meteorite. We set 34 fragments of a 4.5 billion-year-old pallasite meteorite into the shoe, and the finished pair was sold through Sotheby's for £10,000, with proceeds supporting WWF.

Best fit for: studios, streamers and brands wanting a headline-making one-of-one piece to launch a film, show or product - with a built-in press and charity story.

A shoe that tells the film's story

Don't Look Up follows two astronomers trying to warn the world about a comet heading for Earth. Netflix wanted a launch piece that tied straight back to that story, so the brief was simple: put a real piece of space on a sneaker.

The material: a 4.5 billion-year-old pallasite

The fragments came from the Seymchan meteorite, a pallasite found in the dry bed of the Hekandue river in the Magadan region of Russia. Pallasites are stony-iron meteorites, around 4.5 billion years old, with olivine and peridot crystals - ranging from emerald to amber - suspended in iron-nickel metal.

34 fragments, cut to fit the shoe

Each of the 34 fragments was cut with a high-pressure water jet to follow the contours of the New Balance 550. The meteorite replaced the N logo and side panels, and the metal lace locks show the Widmanstätten pattern - the crystal structure found only in iron meteorites.

Close-up details of the custom New Balance 550 with pallasite meteorite fragments set into the N logo and side panels, made by MattB Customs for Netflix

Sold through Sotheby's for charity

The finished pair - a single US size 10 - was released on Sotheby's on 17 December 2021, a week before the film launched on Netflix. It was priced at £10,000, with proceeds going to WWF.

Sotheby's specialist holding the one-of-one meteorite New Balance 550 made by MattB Customs for Netflix's Don't Look Up charity sale

As featured in

The pair was covered by GQ, Highsnobiety, Nerdist, Luxury Launches and The Sole Supplier, and listed on Sotheby's.

Can MattB Customs work with unusual materials for a launch or campaign?

Yes - this is the Netflix model: a one-of-one piece built around your story, using whatever material makes it newsworthy, designed to drive press coverage for a launch or charity sale.

Launching a film, show or product? Get in touch via our Work With Us page or email business@mattbcustoms.com, or browse our full Case Studies library.