New Balance 574 'Timberwolf Angora'
Colorway: Timberwolf/Angora · Style code: U574SQ2 · Release date: August 23, 2022 · Price: $139 · 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)
The material is the change. Most versions of this shoe reach retail with pigskin suede overlays; this one uses leather, which sits smooth instead of napped and reflects light rather than absorbing it, so the same two colours look sharper than they would on the usual build. Timberwolf, a grey with brown under it, covers the overlays, and angora, a warm off-white, fills everything behind them. A finished leather surface also holds its colour longer, since there is no nap to crush or discolour.
New Balance released the pair on August 23, 2022 at $85, the same price the brand asks for its suede versions. The heel is unchanged: ENCAP, a soft EVA core enclosed by a stiffer polyurethane wall, which is what allowed the shoe to be built cheaply without giving up the stability the 500 series was sold on. Leather has an odd relationship with this model. The 574 was drawn as an off-road runner, where suede and mesh made obvious sense, so a smooth leather upper pulls it away from that origin and toward the dress-casual end of the market, which is where a good share of its buyers have always used it anyway.