Now that New Balance is officially fashionable, the brand is taking more risks when it comes to its silhouettes, especially with their collaborative efforts. Between those denim-clad 580s with Levi’s and the ongoing collabs with Aimé Leon Dore, the label has been on a tear since the 2020s started, and now they’ve just dropped New Balance Fresh Foam X RCVRY, a pair of recovery-focused foam mules.
Coming in at just 8.5 ounces, the Fresh Foam X RCVRY mules boast a fully injected foam upper and a Fresh Foam X and injection-molded EVA foam midsole, giving you New Balance’s most cushioned Fresh Foam experience to date. You’re also getting what New Balance is calling “360-degree foot massage elements” designed for post-workout recovery and all-encompassing comfort, and they’re finished with these thick rubber pods on the outsole for traction and that unmistakable New Balance N on the side.
It’s interesting that the label is marketing these as a running shoe and a post-workout recovery mule at the same time. The thick Fresh Foam X seems up to the task (especially since it’s been in some of the label’s most reliable running shoes up to this point), but the rubber pods on the outsole don’t seem to be built for running. This could be a typo in the product description, but they also may just be a running shoe hybrid. As for the colorways available at launch, you’re seeing the “Black with spice blue,” but there’s also the coppery “Tamarind with spice blue” and monochromatic “Concrete with castlerock”; each equipped with a spice blue footbed.
The New Balance Fresh Foam X RCVRY is available now for $100 in the “Black with spice blue” colorway we’ve featured here, along with “Tamarind with spice blue” and “Concrete with castlerock.”
