Published Updated
The Niobium is the strangest thing New Balance makes: a rugged mid-top boot where you zip off the top to get a slip-on mule, then pull out the lining to get a slipper. Owners genuinely love wearing it — and one who wore his almost daily found the waterproof outer shell tearing, with New Balance offering nothing but an apology. It also has a long history of sitting: this shoe has hit $90 before.
Most technical footwear expects you to pack a second pair for camp. The Niobium's answer is a boot that disassembles. Tokyo Design Studio drew it in 2020 with Snow Peak and the concept survives intact in this revival — zip off the top for a mule, pull the lining for slippers — over ABZORB cushioning and the grippy tooling the line took from the MT801 trail runner. People who own the old one adore it, which is the strongest thing you can say about a shoe this odd. Two things should still slow you down. The shell is the weak point: an owner who wore his nearly every day reported tears opening in the water-resistant outer fabric, spreading because the fabric is woven, with no repair offered. And the money is the other: the 2026 version is actually less functional than its predecessor — the clip-on welly insert is gone — while past Niobiums have been dumped at $90 against a $300 retail. At the $272 to $445 the boutiques are asking today, you are paying the top of this shoe's historical range.
Three shoes sharing one upper. Closed it is a boot; zip off the top and it becomes a slip-on mule, then pull the lining out for slippers. If you genuinely carry a second pair for evenings — camping, long-haul travel, wet festivals — the price does real work. If you were only ever going to wear it zipped shut, a conventional waterproof hiker gives you more boot for the money and nothing to break.
Take your true size. Owners report it runs a little long, with true to size the safe call and a half down risking crushed toes — it is cut for hiking, so the front volume is deliberate and it leaves room for thick socks. It is a three-way, utility-driven design on synthetic uppers and rigid tooling with ABZORB cushioning, riding closer to a trail runner than a stiff backpacking boot. Choose it for day hikes, camp and travel rather than load-carrying on technical ground.
The shell is the thing that fails, not the zips. An owner who wore his almost every day for months found tears in the water-resistant outer shell that he expected to keep spreading, because the fabric is woven, and New Balance customer support offered him nothing but an apology; another owner in the same thread had the same problem, plus yellowing along the zip seams. Treat it as a shoe to rotate rather than to live in, keep it away from campfire embers, and buy it somewhere that will take it back.
It is prettier and less capable. The revival is more beautiful than ever, yet actually less functional than its predecessor, because the clip-on insert that turned the 2020 shoe into a quasi welly boot is gone. If you are choosing between them, buy the new one for the colorways and the fit-and-finish, and hunt the original if that fourth mode is the reason you want the shoe at all.
Wait, unless you want a launch colorway badly. Retail is $299.99 and the sixteen boutiques carrying it want $272 to $445 — but this model has a long history of sitting, and previous pairs have gone for $90 against that same $300 retail, with later Concept 2 pairs landing around $99 to $109. The one exception is the Snow Peak collaboration, which is genuinely hard to find. For a standard colorway, patience has historically been worth well over a hundred dollars.
Skip it if you want a plain, dependable boot. This is a three-way, utility-driven design, and every one of those ways adds seams, zips and shell panels a one-piece boot does not have — the wrong purchase for anyone who will never once use the mule or the slipper, and a poor one if you intend to wear it daily given how the outer shell has torn for owners who did. Buyers who want the Tokyo Design Studio look without the mechanism should choose the MT2 or the MT10, which cost a fraction as much.
Claims in the guide text link directly to these Reddit threads and article sources.
New Balance 1906L review and sizing guide
Sizing searches
New Balance MT2
The other current TDS trail shoe — a third of the price and far simpler.
New Balance MT10
The Minimus platform if you want TDS trail styling with a proven record.
Salomon XT-6
Technical trail styling with a real field record and no moving parts.
