New Balance Wmns 574 'Black Grey'
Colorway: Black/Grey · Style code: WL574WU2 · Release date: June 14, 2021 · Price: $102 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: New Balance Wmns 574 'Sea Salt Real Pink' (WL5742BA) · New Balance Wmns 574 'Pink Sugar' (WL5742BB) · New Balance Wmns 574 'Reflection Spring Sky' (WL5742BC) · New Balance Wmns 574 Rugged 'Angora Granite' (WL574AA2) · New Balance Wmns 574 'Bright Lavender' (WL574AG2)
Texture carries this one. Corduroy is a wale fabric, cotton woven into raised ridges, and using it on a 574 changes the surface of the shoe without moving a single pattern piece: the toe, saddle and heel panels sit exactly where suede would, but they catch light in stripes. The colourway is deliberately plain so the weave stays the subject, black across the body with grey behind it and a grey sidewall N.
New Balance put the pair out on June 14, 2021 at $80, as a women's run rather than a unisex one. Corduroy is a cold-weather choice on a shoe usually built around summer mesh, and it sits over the ENCAP heel the 574 has used from the beginning, a cushioning EVA plug fenced in by a harder polyurethane wall. Steven Smith drew that original as the value entry in a 500 series aimed at rough ground, which is why the outsole still wraps up over the toe and the heel stands well above the forefoot. More than thirty years on, those bones are settled enough that a fabric swap is all it takes to make a new shoe.