New Balance's fluffy mary janes: which one I'd buy

New Balance has these winter sneakers with a mary jane strap, velcro, and shearling lining all around the opening, and new colors are dropping tomorrow in Korea. Four colorways in the photos: brown, black, a charcoal with grey fur, and a tan.

The one I'd actually buy is the charcoal with grey fur. It's the only one where the fur doesn't shout. Cream fur against black is cute in a photo, but in real life it's the first thing to go grey on a Seoul sidewalk, and then it just looks tired. Charcoal hides that, and it would go with wide jeans and a long coat without looking like I'm wearing slippers to work. The one I'd skip is the tan. It's a lovely color, but tan suede with cream fur is very close to classic Ugg territory, and if I want that look I already know where to get it. One Korean comment asked the real question: the upper has cut-outs, so is it even warm. Fluffy around the ankle, open on the side. I think these are autumn shoes pretending to be winter shoes, and that's fine with me as long as the price doesn't pretend too.