New Balance 550 Monochromatic Pack - Slate Grey

Released on 1 May 2024 and part of New Balance's 550 line. This release has a leather upper in Slate Grey/Concrete. A monochromatic pack is a design decision about what to remove. The 550 is a basketball silhouette defined by panels, stitching and a clearly drawn block N, and painting all of it a single tone strips out the contrast that normally does the explaining, leaving only shape and texture. Slate Grey is the right tone for that experiment, a cool mid grey with enough depth to hold shadow. It also puts the shoe in the brand's home colour. New Balance formalised its archive as a fashion line when it appointed Aime Leon Dore founder Teddy Santis creative director of Made in USA in April 2021, and this kind of tonal, unbranded looking treatment is what that sensibility does to a sports shoe.