New Balance 574 Sport 'Navy'
Colorway: Navy · Style code: MS574SNV · Price: $345 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: New Balance 574 Sport 'Outdoor Pack' (MS574AAB) · New Balance 574 Sport 'Flight Path - White' (MS574AGC) · New Balance 547 Sport 'Black Dark Blue' (MS574APB) · New Balance 574 Sport 'Tier 1' (MS574AW) · New Balance 574 Sport (MS574AWL)
Sport is New Balance's modernised read on the 574, unveiled in 2017, and the changes are structural rather than cosmetic. The retro model's ENCAP heel, a soft EVA core inside a hard polyurethane rim, gives way to a single piece of Fresh Foam running the length of the shoe, and the upper is cut much closer to the foot than the 1980s pattern allows. This one goes out in navy top to bottom, with the sidewall N in the same tone so the shape is defined by shadow rather than contrast.
Monochrome does a specific job on a shoe like this. Where the retro 574 uses colour blocking to show off panel seams borrowed from an off-road running upper, the Sport has a smoother build with far fewer of them, so a single tone reads as one continuous surface instead of flattening a pattern. New Balance listed the pair at $100, above what the standard 574 costs, and the difference is in the tooling rather than the upper. The two shoes share a name, a sidewall N and a rough outline; very little else carries over.