New Balance’s Mysterious Japanese Design Team Just Dropped an Elite Summer Sneaker

New Balance thrives by knowing their lane. Unlike other sneaker giants who cast a wide design net, Boston’s finest have always succeeded because they know what they do well and they keep doing it better than anyone else. The brand’s performance lines in running, basketball, and baseball certainly shouldn’t be overlooked, but when you think New Balance, you’re ultimately thinking of one thing: dad shoes. And boy, do they know how to make those. Even when New Balance collaborates with other brands and designers, they often stay firmly in that world, but now and then they’ll step outside of it for something truly outside of their comfort zone.

Enter Tokyo Design Studio. New Balance launched the creative hub in 2012. Located in Tokyo’s Nihonbashi Hamacho district and comprised of design minds from across the globe, its main purpose is to help push the stalwart sneaker brand’s goods in new and experimental directions. For more than a decade now, TDS has remained one of the quieter but more fascinating arms of the New Balance family. And this month, they’ve launched their latest project, one that plays to that ethos and creates one of the coolest sneakers of the year in the process.

Courtesy of New Balance

Courtesy of New Balance

For 2025, Tokyo Design Studio has revived the New Balance MT10—originally launched in 2011 as a minimalist trail running shoe—as the New Balance TDS MT10T. In redesigning the silhouette, they’ve made a sneaker that fits firmly within the still-hot ballet sneaker trend. The nubuck upper is unstructured, allowing it to mold to the shape of your foot. And while the sole is made from a durable, almost gorp-y rubber, it’s thinner than you’d expect, leaning into the minimalist design that the original MT10. The shoe is available in two simple black and off-white colorways.

The New Balance Tokyo Design Studio MT10T is available now via New Balance for $140.