Junya Watanabe MAN and New Balance turn MT10T into sleek slip-on trail hybrid

Junya Watanabe MAN took New Balance’s MT10T and made it look almost coy: a low, compact slip-on that reads less like a running shoe than a piece of stealth footwear for people who like their utility with restraint. The runway version appeared in black and white during Junya Watanabe’s Spring/Summer 2026 presentation, where the silhouette folded trail-runner DNA into Mary Jane, moc, ballerina and loafer cues without losing its rugged edge.

That tension is the point. New Balance’s own MT10T sits on the Minimus line that traces back to the original Minimus Trail 10, the lightweight off-road model from 2011 built around natural movement. On paper, the brand’s version is still practical: a unisex lifestyle shoe, style code MT10T364, with a suede and mesh upper, cow, pig and sheep leather, and a Vibram outsole for superior grip. It is listed at $149.99 and is set to be available from April 22 at 10:00 a.m. US/Eastern in a MAGNET/BLACK CEMENT colorway.

Junya Watanabe MAN’s take pushes the same platform into a much more elevated lane. SneakersCartel describes the collaboration as using premium leather and nubuck, with a slip-on construction, a rubber mudguard and the same Vibram outsole anchoring the design. Hypebeast and other footwear coverage peg the release at roughly 49,500, or about $310, putting the designer version well above New Balance’s house-level retail. That gap tells you exactly where the value lives here: not in added performance, but in how the shoe is framed, finished and stripped back.

The MT10T matters because it is not another generic designer sneaker mash-up. It is a niche outdoor silhouette that most brands would have left in the archive, reworked into something that can move between Dover Street Market styling, COMME des GARÇONS-adjacent restraint and actual daily wear. Highsnobiety noted that Junya Watanabe debuted the pair in black and white at his SS26 show, and called it a luxe leather update on the MT10T platform. That same coverage also pointed to Aimé Leon Dore’s earlier MT10T rework in 2025, a reminder that the silhouette is becoming a favorite shape for fashion labels chasing a cleaner, more directional kind of sneaker.

For Junya Watanabe, the appeal is obvious. The brand has already been working New Balance into formalwear-adjacent territory through projects like the 1906R loafer, and the MT10T continues that experiment with even less noise. It is trail hardware filtered through fashion-house discipline, and that is what gives the shoe its charge: it looks ready for the street, but it was built to feel like it could leave it behind.