Only AURALEE Could Make the OG New Balance Sneaker Art (EXCLUSIVE)
AURALEE is New Balance's most consistent collaborator, bar none. Across a vast slate of ordinary sneaker silhouettes, the Japanese clothing label has demonstrated supreme mastery of color, texture, tone, and temperament, transforming even the most obvious of dad shoes into a delight.
Now, AURALEE has made the most quotidian, the most ordinary of New Balances into a beautiful work of art.
As first seen by Highsnobiety backstage after AURALEE's Spring/Summer 2027 Paris Fashion Week presentation on June 23, AURALEE's next big collaborative New Balance sneaker is called the 574 Driver and it transforms the classic 574 sneaker into a super-sleek sneak.
The flat shoe is as superb as ever, pristine in its tonal black or blue brilliance and redolent of some of AURALEE's past hits. You can see the sleek DNA of AURALEE's sueded-out RC30 and XC-72 in the new shoe's silhouette, while the paneling hits akin to the recent New Balance 204l collab. Even the flat sole is not terribly dissimilar, even if only in attitude, to AURALEE's epochal NB 550. And yet, it's anchored in the history of the all-timer 574 silhouette.
This could be AURALEE designing its own New Balance or this could be AURALEE merely being tapped to intro a fresh in-house New Balance style, like when it helped premiere the beefy WRPD runner a few years ago. The 574 Driver shoe is indeed Miu Miu New Balance-coded, and as the 204l indicated, New Balance is keen to keep the flat-shoe momentum rolling.
Doesn't AURALEE deserve its own signature shoe, though?
Few brands are defining good taste right now quite like AURALEE, whose name has become synonymous with elegantly considered clothes of the distinctly gorgeous, if understated, variety. And it's a shame that we're so focused on the New Balance of it all, because AURALEE's Spring/Summer 2027 collection was yet another case study in putting forth tasteful garments that're anything but boring, defined not by anonymity but flashes of full-figured color and stunning textiles and breezy grace.
The collaborative New Balances were also really good, though.
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