New Balance 574 Core Pack - Navy

Navy 574s go with almost anything, which is the point. Wear them with mid wash straight leg denim and a white tee, socks white at the ankle, for the version that has worked for decades. The second recipe is smarter, grey trousers with a navy knit and a light jacket, where the shoe reads as a tonal finish rather than a sneaker. This is a genuine all day walker, good for travel, errands and long flat days. Brush the navy suede dry in one direction to keep the nap even, treat it before the wet season, wipe salt marks while damp, and dry away from direct heat.

The 574 is New Balance's democratic shoe, the one that spread furthest without a campaign behind it. The 990 family took the same plainness upmarket and became the archetypal American dad shoe, worn for comfort rather than status, and when normcore and then high fashion reclaimed that ordinariness in the 2010s the 574 was already on millions of feet. Its parallel life ran through British casual dressing, where New Balance's Made in England 99x models had a following in terrace culture, and the brand's Flimby factory has served Europe since 1991 after the original Workington plant opened in 1982.

The 574 runs on ENCAP, the classic New Balance midsole introduced with the 995 in 1986, in which a moulded polyurethane rim encapsulates a soft EVA core: the polyurethane supplies structure, durability and low compression set while the EVA absorbs shock, giving stability without deadening the ride. That is why a 574 keeps its heel shape for years instead of packing out. The upper is the model's familiar suede and mesh panelling with the block N across the side wall, worked here in navy so the layering shows as texture. Multiple width fittings are the brand's oldest technical promise, and the 574 is the shoe most people first discover them on.