Sneaker Spotlight #2: New Balance x TGWO 577 “Autobahn Day”

For this week’s Sneaker Spotlight I highlight one of my favourite runners in rotation: The New Balance x TGWO 577 “Autobahn Day”.

If you read my first post on this blog you will know that I hail from Cologne in Germany. And while my sneakerhead origin story kicked off in Paris, I really started getting into sneakers in Cologne.

The Good Will Out is the premier address for sneakers in Cologne and by now known by sneakerheads all over the globe. The “Autobahn Pack” was TGWO’s first collaboration and part of what put them on the radar.

It was inspired by the Autobahn, Germany’s world famous motorway because it has no speed limit. The first publicly accessible route of the Autobahn, the A1, was built between Bonn and Cologne, so the theme was very relevant.

TGWO chose two New Balance 577 “Made in England” for the base of the pack as it was one of the first shoes they stocked when the store first opened its doors back in 2008. The pack consisted of two variations, one for the Autobahn by day, the other by night.

The “Night” was the shoe everyone was raving about. It featured buttery black and light grey suede, soft dark grey leather and two different heels: red with a 3M hit on the left shoe and white on the right with glow in the dark. That way, when seen from the back, it looks like the head and tail lights of the cars on the Autobahn at night (because everyone outside of the former British Empire drives on the right and correct side of the road!). People always go crazy over glow in the dark, and the concept behind the design was amazing.

Which is why the “Day” got very little love. It is a very simple shoe with a predominantly light grey suede upper, with blue suede toward the back of the shoe. It represented the road in daylight and the unmistakable blue Autobahn sign.

At the time I preferred the “Night” to the “Day” because of its concept and the outside the box design choice for the heels. They looked much better in the pictures and I told myself that if I could only get one pair I would get the “Night”.

The shoes released at The Good Will Out one week before they became available internationally. I was lucky that a few pairs of the “Day” were later sold online, because I was stuck in Cardiff at the time with no real chance of getting my hands on them.

I did manage to get the “Night”s online on the international release, so I do have both. And I feel that the “Day” is so undeservedly underrated. The colourway is really clean and the shoe looks really good on-feet.

In my opinion it is the better of the two, which is why I packed them for Cardiff even though Cardiff is not the best place to bring suede shoes…

What do you think of these? Do you think The Good Will Out did a good job on the pack? Which part of the pack do you prefer?

Let me know in the comments below.