Most of COMME des GARÇONS HOMME's New Balance sneakers look simple because they are. The Japanese company’s most classic menswear line specializes in monochrome (typically black) New Balance sneakers with small CDG branding stamped on the tongue. It’s the same approach nearly every season, because why mess with success? 

The COMME des GARÇONS HOMME ABZORB 2010 toys with that formula ever so slightly. Instead of the usual jet black, one shoe is slate grey while its counterpart is white with ivory nubuck leather overlays. It’s hardly boundary-breaking stuff but it’s a tasteful change from regular programming.

Still, CDG’s ABZORB 2010 is undeniably handsome. And in the ABZORB 2010’s short life, no collaborator has made the shoe more plainly wearable.

The year-old dad shoe became a tasteful shade of red thanks to Rich Paul, while Joe Freshgoods’ gave it a nice fuzzy upper, and WTAPS went for a military-minded makeover. But of course, COMME des GARÇONS HOMME goes the most minimal. 

CDG’s duo of ABZORB 2010 sneakers drops on March 20, marking back-to-back dad shoes for a collaboration that yielded a similarly restrained New Balance 509 at the end of last year. 

COMME des GARÇONS HOMME doesn’t stick to any single sneaker niche even with its New Balance teamups, previously creating everything from outdoorsy slip-on New Balances to hybrid formal shoes. The only thing tying all this footwear together is elegant simplicity.  

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