New Balance 327 Natural Indigo

Released on 27 September 2022 and part of New Balance's 327 line. This release has a suede upper in Natural Indigo/White. Natural Indigo puts the 327 into a dye tradition rather than a sportswear palette, and that is a smart use of a shoe built on graphic proportion. The 327 exaggerates archive running shapes and runs the block N large across the side wall, so it needs a colour with some depth to stop it reading as pure logo. Indigo delivers that: a blue that behaves like a fabric rather than a paint, one that reads differently in shadow than in sun. New Balance came out of a 1906 arch support business and has spent its life making functional objects, so a workwear dye reference sits comfortably on one of its shoes.