New Balance 9060 Concrete New Spruce

Work the green: olive or khaki wide trousers, a cream tee and a grey overshirt, so the spruce reads as intentional and the concrete grey does the heavy lifting. The second recipe is cleaner, mid grey trousers with a white shirt and no other colour, letting the green be a single accent at ground level. This is a long day walking and travel shoe rather than a training shoe, and the tall midsole prefers trousers that stop cleanly at the ankle. Brush the suede dry, protect the mesh before the wet season, and clean the grey midsole early with mild soap, since concrete tones dull rather than stain.

The 9060 only makes sense after the culture had already decided New Balance's plainness was a design position. The 990 family became the archetypal American dad shoe, worn for comfort rather than status, with documented wearers including Steve Jobs, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner and Hilary Duff, and normcore then high fashion reclaimed that through the 2010s. Once the ordinary shoe was fashion, distorting it became the next move. A grey and green build keeps one foot in the brand's recognisable neutrality while using colour the way its designer collaborators do, treating the archive as material rather than as heritage to be preserved.

The upper layers mesh with suede and synthetic overlays across the 9060's heavily segmented panelling, concrete grey holding the structure while spruce green picks out overlays and branding so the panel breaks read as deliberate line work. Underfoot New Balance uses ABZORB, its proprietary foam and rubber polymer blend that disperses heel strike impact before it travels up into the knees and hips, and the exaggerated midsole gives that foam serious depth. It is softer and lighter than ENCAP, so this is a cushioned platform rather than a stability one. Take the width fitting that matches your foot, the promise New Balance has kept since its arch support beginnings, and be honest about length because the volume is generous.