New Balance 574 'Sea Salt Rust'
Colorway: Sea Salt/Rust · Style code: ML574BS2 · Release date: January 17, 2022 · Price: $63 · 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)
Rust is the warmer end of New Balance's brown range, a burnt orange with brick under it, and on suede it goes deep rather than bright. Here it covers the overlay set, toe cap through heel, while sea salt, an off-white with a little warmth in it, fills the body panels and the midsole. The two sit close enough together that the shoe reads as one autumn tone at distance and as two up close.
New Balance put the pair out on January 17, 2022 at $85. It is the standard 574 underneath, which means an ENCAP heel, soft EVA sealed inside a firmer polyurethane rim, and a rubber outsole that climbs over the toe. That sole and that upper were not drawn together: Steven Smith built the first version by fitting a 576 upper to a 577 bottom, making a cheaper way into New Balance's 500 series for off-road running. Thirty-odd years later the mismatch reads as proportion, and colourways like this one lean into it, using warm earth tones to push a running shoe toward something closer to a boot.