New Balance 574v2 'Red Navy'
Colorway: Red/Navy · Style code: ML574EH2 · Release date: January 19, 2022 · Price: $109 · 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)
Red and navy is a combination borrowed from athletics kit, and on the 574v2 it is split by material as much as by panel. Red suede takes the overlays, navy fills the body behind them, and the sidewall N is picked out so it separates from both. The two tones are almost equally dark, so the shoe has no obvious foreground and background; what registers first is the seam line between them.
The v2 designation covers New Balance's revised build of the core 574, worked on the same outline. The heel still runs ENCAP, soft EVA encased in a harder polyurethane rim, which is the component that has survived every revision the model has had. This pair released on January 19, 2022 at $85. Primary colours on a shoe with this history are not a throwback gesture: the 500 series was competitive running gear before it was anything else, and red over navy is close to what a running shoe looked like when the line was new. The difference now is the material, since suede in these tones carries a depth that nylon never had.