Bulletin: The New Balance 574

The 574 is the New Balance most people picture when someone says New Balance. It's been in production since 1988 and it has never really been out of it.

How does the New Balance 574 look on?

Lower and less bulky than the photographs suggest. The sole looks substantial from the side and reads much flatter once it's on the foot, so the 574 sits closer to a plain trainer than to the chunkier things New Balance makes now. It works under a straight jean and under a wide one, which is more than the 9060 or the 1906R will do.

The suede-and-mesh upper is what dates it, in a good way. It creases across the toe within a few wears and looks better for it.

Do the New Balance 574 fit true to size?

They do, and they're cut wider than most of the range. If you've tried the 1906R and found it narrow, the 574 is the one to go back to — it's built on a broader last and there's noticeably more room across the ball of the foot.

Where the 574 came from

New Balance didn't start out making trainers. It began as the New Balance Arch Support Company, making supports for people who were on their feet all day, and only moved into footwear because the athletes buying the supports kept asking for it. The first shoe was the Trackster in 1960 — the first running shoe with a serrated outsole for grip.

The 574 arrived in 1988 as a performance running shoe. It was never designed to be a fashion trainer. What happened instead is that it was comfortable and cheap enough that people kept wearing it after they stopped running, and by the mid-nineties it had drifted into everyday use without the brand doing much to push it there.

That's most of the reason it still works. It was drawn to be run in, so nothing about it is decorative.

Whatever we have in stock is in the New Balance collection.