New Balance 574 'Heather Grey'
Colorway: Grey · Style code: U574GRM · Release date: February 26, 2023 · Price: $136 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: 574 (U5747FE) · 574 (U5748DF) · 574 (U5748SB) · New Balance New Balance 57/40 'Lunar New Year - Black Poppy' (U5740CNB) · New Balance 57/40 'Lunar New Year - Eclipse' (U5740CNN)
Heather grey is grey with other fibres mixed into it, which gives a surface that reads as slightly mottled rather than flat, and running it across a whole 574 turns the shoe into one continuous texture. The suede overlays and the panels beneath carry the same tone, the laces match, and even the sidewall N sits only a fraction lighter than what surrounds it. There is nothing here to catch the eye except the profile.
New Balance released the pair on February 26, 2023 at $100. Grey on this model is close to a default position, and the way this version handles it is the strictest possible reading: not two greys, not grey with white, one shade everywhere. The heel runs ENCAP, a soft centre with a hard polyurethane wall around it, the component carried over from the model's first production. An all-grey pair is worth looking at because it exposes the shape completely. Every curve the 574 inherited from its off-road parentage, the toe bumper, the flared heel, the wide sole platform, stays visible because no colour is pulling attention away from it.