TrainerSpotting: New Balance 57/40 Spotted at Istanbul’s Spice Bazaar

A couple of years ago, while visiting Istanbul’s famous Spice Bazaar, a colorful pair of New Balance sneakers caught my attention. I snapped a quick photo as I walked through the market. Looking back at it, the shoes appear to be the New Balance 57/40 in the Sage/Bleached Lime Glow colorway, a distinctive lifestyle sneaker released in 2021.

TrainerSpotting in Istanbul

This is exactly the kind of shoe sighting that gave me the idea for TrainerSpotting.

Not every interesting sneaker is something I own or have tested. Sometimes I simply notice a pair while I’m out somewhere, take a photo, and later want to know more about what I saw.

That’s what happened during a visit to the Spice Bazaar in Istanbul, Turkey.

Among the crowds walking through the market, one pair stood out because of its unusual combination of earthy brown, green and bright yellow tones.

I took a quick photo.

At the time, that was pretty much the end of it. But revisiting the photo a couple of years later gave me a chance to identify the sneaker and learn a little more about it.

The shoe appears to be the New Balance 57/40 Sage/Bleached Lime Glow.

Quick Look at the New Balance 57/40

The 57/40 was New Balance’s modern reinterpretation of one of its most recognizable sneakers: the 574.

Instead of simply recreating the 574, New Balance exaggerated several of its design elements and mixed influences from different decades.

What Is the New Balance 57/40?

New Balance introduced the 57/40 in 2021 as a new take on the classic 574.

The company described the design as an “80s meets 90s” interpretation. The familiar shape and heritage of the 574 remained part of the inspiration, but several features became much more exaggerated.

The traditional New Balance N logo became considerably larger. The shoe also incorporated flowing lines inspired by 1990s footwear and a layered midsole that combined elements of the traditional 574 with a wider, more sculpted design.

Even the outsole referenced the trail-running heritage behind the original 574.

The result was a lifestyle sneaker that looked familiar from a distance but considerably more experimental when you looked closely.

What Colorway Did I Spot in Istanbul?

The pair in my photo appears to be the Sage/Bleached Lime Glow, style code M5740WT1.

This colorway was released in 2021 and combines earthy shades with much brighter accents.

That’s probably why I noticed them in the first place.

The brown and tan sections give the shoe a relatively neutral base, while green and yellow accents make it much harder to overlook. The oversized N logo makes the color blocking even more noticeable.

Seeing the shoe being worn rather than sitting against a white background also changes how the colors come across.

In the middle of a busy market, they stood out.

Why the 57/40 Looks Different From the Classic 574

The connection between the names isn’t accidental.

The 57/40 was designed as a reinterpretation of the New Balance 574 rather than an entirely unrelated sneaker.

But the two don’t look identical.

The 574 has become known for a relatively straightforward retro-running silhouette. The 57/40 takes that foundation and exaggerates it.

The N logo is bigger. The midsole is more sculpted. The overlays are more expressive, and the overall shape mixes retro running influences with a more modern lifestyle-sneaker appearance.

New Balance essentially took something familiar and asked what it might look like if the design were pushed further.

That’s also what makes the 57/40 interesting to spot in person.

The Oversized N Is Hard to Miss

One feature made identifying the shoes in my old photo considerably easier: the oversized New Balance N.

New Balance deliberately enlarged the logo when designing the 57/40, turning it into one of the shoe’s defining visual features.

It followed a similar design direction to another New Balance lifestyle sneaker, the 327, which also uses an exaggerated N logo.

On the Sage/Bleached Lime Glow colorway, that oversized branding works particularly well because it becomes part of the contrasting color scheme rather than simply serving as a small logo on the side.

A Different Side of New Balance Lifestyle Sneakers

The 57/40 is also an interesting contrast with another New Balance lifestyle sneaker I’ve covered on Sole of Athletes: the New Balance 530.

Both draw heavily from older New Balance design language, but they take very different approaches.

The 530 leans into the look of a retro running shoe. The 57/40 takes the heritage idea in a more exaggerated direction, particularly through its oversized branding, layered construction and more dramatic midsole.

If you like New Balance lifestyle sneakers, you can also read my New Balance 530 review for a very different interpretation of the retro-sneaker look.

What Made Me Photograph These Shoes?

Sometimes there’s no complicated reason. They simply caught my eye.

I was visiting one of Istanbul’s best-known markets, surrounded by colors, people, shops and plenty of things competing for attention. Yet I still noticed this particular pair of sneakers.

The Sage/Bleached Lime Glow color combination was unusual enough that I took a photo.

That’s really what TrainerSpotting is supposed to capture. It’s not always about testing a shoe or deciding whether you should buy it. Sometimes it’s simply about noticing interesting footwear being worn in the real world and finding out the story behind it later.

In this case, a photo taken during a trip to Istanbul led me back to a New Balance model released a few years earlier.

Final Thoughts

I didn’t buy these shoes. I didn’t interview the person wearing them, and this isn’t a performance review.

I simply spotted an interesting pair of sneakers while walking through Istanbul’s Spice Bazaar and took a picture.

Years later, they’re still interesting enough that I wanted to know what they were.

The answer appears to be the New Balance 57/40 Sage/Bleached Lime Glow, a 2021 lifestyle sneaker that took the familiar 574 and pushed its retro design in a bolder direction.

Frequently Asked Questions About the New Balance 57/40

What is the New Balance 57/40?

The New Balance 57/40 is a lifestyle sneaker introduced in 2021. New Balance designed it as a modern reinterpretation of the classic 574, combining elements inspired by 1980s and 1990s footwear.

Is the New Balance 57/40 based on the 574?

Yes. New Balance specifically created the 57/40 as a reinterpretation of the 574. It retains some of the older shoe’s design DNA while exaggerating features such as the N logo, midsole and overlays.

What is the New Balance 57/40 Sage/Bleached Lime Glow?

Sage/Bleached Lime Glow is a 2021 colorway of the New Balance 57/40. Its style code is M5740WT1, and it combines earthy shades with green and brighter yellow/lime accents.

Is the New Balance 57/40 a running shoe?

The 57/40 draws heavily from New Balance’s running and trail heritage, but it was introduced primarily as a lifestyle sneaker rather than as a modern performance running shoe.

When did the New Balance 57/40 come out?

New Balance introduced the 57/40 at the beginning of 2021. The Sage/Bleached Lime Glow colorway featured here followed later that year.

Where were these New Balance 57/40s spotted?

I photographed this pair while visiting the Spice Bazaar in Istanbul, Turkey. The photo was taken a couple of years before I revisited it for this TrainerSpotting article.