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- The New Balance Made in USA 2040v5 costs USD$399.99 (roughly AUD$570).
- Its premium comes from Horween nubuck, three different cushioning technologies and two carbon-fibre plates.
- The shoe launches in North America on 20 August 2026, with a global release planned for May 2027.
New Balance has made a USD$400 grey sneaker. Normally, a sentence like that would need a bit more explaining. But grey runners have practically become the brand’s uniform, and the excellent Made in USA 990v6 currently costs half as much.
But New Balance isn’t pretending the new 2040v5 is just another dad shoe. As they put it, the shoe sits at the “outer limits of craftsmanship”, which is a fairly dramatic description for what is essentially another chunky grey runner your podiatrist might approve of.
My flat feet might be interested in a pair of these, but what exactly does USD$399.99 (~AUD$570) buy you? Better materials, mostly. But there’s also an excessive amount of technology hidden underneath to help explain a nearly AUD$600 cop.
1/10Why Does the New Balance Cost This Much?
Starting at the upper, instead of the suede and synthetic overlays you’ll find on a regular Made in USA 992, New Balance has used Horween nubuck leather across the saddle, tongue, mudguard, toe and heel. All of that is then paired with a two-tone mesh and two gauges of contrast stitching.
It might sound like an overdose of decoration, but the materials you’re paying for include some rather expensive leather, along with the more involved Made in USA construction needed to precision-apply it with two different gauges of contrast stitching. The 992, by comparison, uses premium suede, mesh and synthetic overlays. Peasants.
New Balance continues to show off a bit with its running technology. FuelCell is there to add a more responsive, propulsive feel to shoes. ABZORB SBS handles impact absorption, while ENCAP puts a firmer polyurethane structure around the softer cushioning. They’ve essentially created a triple-stack of systems, piling on the cushioning without sacrificing too much structure or stability.
But that’s not all. There are two carbon-fibre plates inside the 2040v5. One of them runs the full length of the shoe, while the second sits along the medial side. Both of them are there for added support and stability.
So, does that make it worth twice the price of a 990v6? We won’t know without slipping a pair of these on and taking a walk. But at least we know where they got the whole “outer limits of craftsmanship” line from. They’re really expensive sneakers with even more expensive hardware on the inside.
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