Manitobah Mukluks has always understood that a moccasin is never just footwear. It is a document of culture and land, and of the artist whose vision lives in every bead, stitch, and etched line. Their Spring 2026 collection makes that argument with exceptional force, assembling a roster of Indigenous artists across nations and disciplines to produce what may be the brand’s most ambitious and spiritually rich drop yet. Here, every pair tells a specific story, and the story matters.
The Artists
Three artists form the foundation of this collection. Tracie Jackson (Diné), a Footwear Designer at Manitobah and fourth-generation artisan raised in Northern Arizona, brings the geometric rigor of the Navajo dazzler rug tradition into contemporary footwear through precise beadwork and floral etching. Heather Endall (Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation), whose Turtle Sole design appears across multiple silhouettes, encodes the legend of Turtle Island into the sole itself: a circle representing life’s unity, flowing sky lines, a turtle moving toward prairie grasses, and lunar markings on the shell. Shannon Gustafson (Ojibwe, Whitesand First Nation) contributes embroidery work rooted in ancestral floral traditions, and her design for this collection carries the figure of Nigig, a being central to Ojibwe healing and creation stories. Additional artists include Kaija Heitland (Métis, Scandinavian), whose berry outsole design reflects both her Métis beadwork heritage and Northern European roots; Anne Bell (Fort Nelson First Nation, South Slavey descent), whose diamond and arrow motifs encode teachings of reflection and right-path-finding; Mikailah Thompson (Nimíipuu), whose bold geometric and floral beadwork integrates nimíipuu and African design traditions; and Janice Parsons (Inuk, Nunavik), founder of Yaya Inspirations, whose embroidery brings Inuit cultural elements to the Dancer Ankle Boot’s topline.
The Collection
The Meadow Mary Jane, new for Spring 2026, introduces a timeless slip-on silhouette in super-soft suede, ornamented with Tracie Jackson’s beadwork inspired by the Four Directions, teachings of balance, guidance, and connection that resonate across many Indigenous communities. It is perhaps the most accessible entry point into the collection: clean, elegant, and quietly profound.
Its close relative, the Tolani Moccasin, also by Jackson, offers a modern reinterpretation of the dazzler rug pattern, with diamond shapes representing mountains and arrow motifs signifying clouds. The design explores the negative space between beads, transforming familiar geometry into a fresh visual rhythm. Light, unlined, and built for warm-weather movement, the Tolani moves as naturally on a forest path as it does on a city sidewalk.
The Sunshine Moccasin takes Endall’s Turtle Sole design as its organizing principle, letting the symbolic cosmology of Turtle Island narrate the journey underfoot. Breathable, wear-everywhere suede pairs with that storied sole for a moccasin that earns the designation of instant classic.
The Jeddito Mid is the collection’s most layered hybrid: soft suede and luxurious pony hair, a cowboy-inspired topline, and Shannon Gustafson’s embroidery featuring Nigig in a design she describes as rooted in creation stories and personal healing. “Chi Miigwetch to my ancestors for telling stories through their art,” she writes. “The curiosity of this design has helped me return to land and ceremony.” Finished with Endall’s Turtle Sole, Jeddito is the rare boot that carries ceremony into daily life.
Tracie Jackson returns again with the Wildflower Ballet Flat, a graceful leather silhouette with floral etching along the collar, five petals symbolizing beauty in motion, inspired by Indigenous ballerinas and dancers who bring stories to life through movement. A removable lace shifts the look from polished to effortless, while the Turtle Sole grounds every step.
Kaija Heitland’s Modern Moccasin delivers luxurious top-grade leather and a berry outsole design that speaks to her dual inheritance: Métis beadwork tradition and Scandinavian pattern vocabulary. Heitland’s practice is deeply community-oriented, she uses land-based art to address lateral violence and support cultural reclamation within the Cowichan Valley Métis community, and that grounded intentionality is visible in every line.
The Tipi Tooneu Slipper, featuring Anne Bell’s diamond and arrow beadwork, offers the quietest philosophy in the collection. “We can all use some courage, strength, and wisdom to help us choose a right path in life,” Bell writes of her design. The slipper’s warmth, fleece footbed, soft suede, matches the gentleness of that invitation. Slip these on at the end of a long day and consider your next step carefully.
The Street Moccasin brings fur ankle cuff, beaded vamp, and Endall’s Turtle Sole into a go-anywhere silhouette that honors tradition without sacrificing durability. The Dancer Ankle Boot, with Janice Parsons’ Inuk embroidery along its topline and easy zipper access, adds cultural narrative to casual elegance. And the Butterfly Flat, beaded by Afro-Indigenous nimíipuu artist Mikailah Thompson, completes the collection in full-grain nubuck leather and elastic-opening ease, Thompson’s characteristic bold geometrics and cultural layering rendered in a shoe that, true to its name, practically lifts off the ground.
Collectively, Spring 2026 is Manitobah at its most intentional: a collection that insists footwear is a form of cultural expression, that every sole pressed to the earth carries a story, and that Indigenous artists are not collaborators to be tokenized but architects of a new luxury vocabulary. Walk accordingly.
