New Balance 574 Core Plus 'Rain Cloud Blue'
Colorway: Rain Cloud/Pigment/Bali Blue · Style code: ML574SOU · Price: $164 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: New Balance 574 'Pennant Pack' (ML574) · New Balance 574 'Incense' (ML574AA2) · New Balance 574 'Natural Indigo Maple' (ML574AB2) · New Balance 574 'Rain Cloud Maple' (ML574AC2) · Alpha Industries x New Balance 574 'Sedona Seige Grey' (ML574AI2)
Three blues and a grey, layered rather than blocked. Rain cloud is the pale grey covering most of the upper, pigment is the darker tone on the overlays, and bali blue is the brightest of the set, used in small doses, which keeps the shoe from reading as team sportswear. Core Plus is how New Balance labels this particular version, and that label is the only thing about it that is out of the ordinary.
Structurally it is the standard 574, the shape Steven Smith arrived at by fitting an existing 576 upper onto a 577 sole as the cheap option inside New Balance's off-road 500 series, and nothing in this version departs from it. The brand priced it at $85. What a grey and blue arrangement like this buys is range: it sits against denim, against black, and against most of the neutrals the rest of the catalogue is built around, which is the practical reason the combination keeps reappearing on the model rather than any one release standing out.