New Balance’s NB Numeric 574 Vulc sneaker has everything you need from a practical skate shoe.
For starters the shoe is sturdy as hell and secondly, thanks to a vulcanised rubber outsole, the NB Numeric 574 Vulc is dead durable too.
NB's newest skate shoes, though, are also (perhaps more importantly) objectively great to look at — something that has become a regular occurrence with New Balance skate-ready sneakers of late.
Eagle-eyed New Balance aficionados will likely have already noticed the sneaker’s “574” title, a name shared with one of the brand’s most unassuming and unpretentious lifestyle silhouettes.
And while NB Numeric’s new skate-ready variation appears to be a different shoe completely to that of the original, its upper make-up is virtually identical to the classic 574, a few tweaks aside.
What is different, aside from the lower-profile and the additional panels of leather on the upper, is the NB Numeric 574’s chunky rubber outsole that replaces the OG 574’s ENCAP and polyurethane rim.
The branding has also undergone a tweak by way of the NB Numeric logo on the tongue, while the sneaker's outsole has also gone under the knife. That said, it's only the midsole that appears different aesthetically.
Since New Balance first released its 574 model back in 1988 as a technical running shoe, the sneaker has remained one of the brand’s popular silhouettes, albeit not for running.
Instead, the 574, which while an innovative sneaker back in '88, has been adopted by New Balance's lifestyle sector and has also found itself at the centre of some the brand's hyped collaborations including Miu Miu, Stone Island, and Junya Watanabe, to name only a few.
Now, though, thanks to a tweak here and there and some longevity injected into its particulars, the 574 can now also consider itself a bonafide (and very beautiful) skate shoe.
