I've watched some YouTube videos on the shadow2 generations, which are distinguished by colour. From what I gather, the changes from black to gray and gray to blue are negligible (cosmetic/hardcoat etc) but from blue to orange they hand fit the slide and upgraded some of the hardware upfront, allegedly increasing accuracy (I'm sure it does, but who was out here "out shooting" their shadow two anyway?! I want to train where you trained.) If you've got an extra thousand bucks to burn, go for it. I would've if I had millions in the bank. Frankly though, I plan to put an optic on my blue anyway and would rather spend the extra grand on a OR slide, when they become available, which wont be hand fitted either.