The New Balance Custom 574 Review

I recently ordered two pairs of custom New Balance 574s from newbalance.com and I could not be happier with the results. For those of you who aren't familiar, New Balance offers a custom program (just like Nike iD) on their website for two classic models, the 574 and 993.

New Balance's customs have a great selection of colors and are priced very well. The 574s are $114.95 and the 993s are $174.95. You can almost always find a 10% off + free shipping discount code to get these down to about $110 shipped including tax.

I ordered two pairs on Tuesday, Nov. 20th and both pairs arrived by Tuesday Dec. 4th. This is an incredibly quick turnaround when you consider that I live in California (They're made in Massachusetts), and that NB and UPS are both obviously closed for Thanksgiving. 

Right off the bat, I was impressed with the quality. The suede and mesh are on par with the materials you see on many New Balance collabs. The leather was also high quality, worlds better than what we're used to seeing on Jordan retros. The craftsmanship is also great. The stitching is all on point, no glue stains, and the shape is perfect. Overall, the quality is much greater than what anyone in the sneaker community expects to get for $110 these days, which is refreshing. 

I'm a huge fan of Nike iD, but this is a better product. I've never had any real quality issues with Nike iDs, but the price point + 6 weeks wait are too much to deal with when a competitor is offering a similar experience with better quality and shorter wait time. I must reiterate that the quality on all of my Nike iDs has been very nice and I'm always very pleased, I'm just trying to state how New Balance goes above and beyond on these customs.

Enough about the experience, let's get to the kicks and what inspired them:

The New Balance 574 Custom "Weekend @ Bernie's"

These were inspired by the movie "Weekend At Bernie's". I wanted to make a shoe based on Bernie's outfit because I felt like I could use another summer-type sneaker that's more toned down than all the bright ass Nike Basketball stuff I like to rock in the summer. For those of you that are unfamiliar with "Weekend At Bernie's", cheek it out. Shit is hilarious. I loved it as a kid. Here's a pic of Bernie and the fit that inspired the colors on this shoe:

New Balance 574 Custom "Ultra Travolta"

"So yeah, at the Grammys I went Ultra Travolta. Yeah that tuxedo might have been a little guido."- Kanye West on "The Glory"

That lyric set up my frame of mind when designing this pair. I just wanted to show out with these and give them a colorway and feel you don't typically get with New Balances. As far as the colorblocking goes, I was inspired by the "Red Devil" 670:

I didn't want my shoe to be a total ripoff of the "Red Devils" so I thought to go with the black midsole and add some more colors to the mix. Every sneakerhead has a ton of black/red shoes just off Js alone, so I chose to add some green and a touch of yellow to give them that Gucci colorway. I went with Green and yellow because I'm a big fan of the 24 Kilates Asics Gel Saga:

I love that shoe, but it's one of those pairs that I don't love enough to pay the silly resell prices for.

So far, I've rocked the Ultra Travoltas and they're incredibly comfy. I really love both pairs and I highly recommend customizing your own pair. You won't be disappointed.