New Balance 2002r Protection Pack - Grey Purple

Released on 28 September 2022 and part of New Balance's 2002R line. This release has a suede upper in Light Arctic Grey/Purple. New Balance built the 2002 as a top tier runner in the years when its technical shoes were engineered with the same care as the 99x line, and the 2002R is that shoe rebuilt for pavement rather than mileage. Grey Purple starts from the house grey that made the brand famous, the plain suburban running colour that normcore and then high fashion reclaimed as a design position, then runs a purple through the mesh, the lining and the block N so the shoe stops reading as neutral. The Protection Pack treatment gives the upper a stripped, weathered character instead of a showroom finish. That suits a company whose cultural life has been mostly accidental, and whose fit and support logic goes back to the arch support business of 1906.