In a city that never slows down, models Eugene Reggio and Mika Reins have learned how to keep their own pace. Between call times, castings, and late-night wraps, they&rsquo;re always one step ahead with New Balance&rsquo;s latest performance pairs: the FuelCell Rebel v5 and Fresh Foam X 1080v14.

PHOTOGRAPHY Renzo Navarro
CREATIVE DIRECTION Joan Kong

It&rsquo;s a gloomy weekday morning in Manila, the kind that makes the city move a little slower. Inside the studio, though, things are already up and running. The first thing you notice on set is how quietly everyone&rsquo;s working. There&rsquo;s music playing, just enough to fill the air, but the energy stays focused. Between takes, you can hear the shuffle of sneakers across the floor. The squeaks come from new soles, moving with the rhythm of people who know what they&rsquo;re doing.
Eugene Reggio adjusts his pose without needing direction. Mika Reins waits for the next cue before her layout, still but ready. Both models are calm and practiced, in tune with everything happening around them. At some point, your eye drifts to their shoes. A flicker of silver, cream and dark green cutting through the neutral tones of the set. They&rsquo;re both in New Balance. Reins is in the FuelCell Rebel v5 while Reggio is in the Fresh Foam X 1080v14. The pairs are built for movement as they&rsquo;re lightweight, cushioned and easy to wear, from studio floors all the way to city streets. You can see why they work here: technical enough for performance, clean enough for everything else.

Manila&rsquo;s modeling scene has shifted. There&rsquo;s more individuality and personality with stories that don&rsquo;t follow a single mold. It&rsquo;s a space where new faces are reshaping the idea of representation, a change that feels close to home for Filipino-Chinese model Mika Reins.
&ldquo;When I started, I didn&rsquo;t see a lot of East Asian-looking models,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;The ones I looked up to were people who didn&rsquo;t necessarily look like me, so I wanted to be someone other girls could see in a magazine and think, &lsquo;She looks like me. Maybe I can do that too.&rsquo;&rdquo;

&ldquo;A model&rsquo;s job is to be a blank canvas&mdash;to bring the creative&rsquo;s vision to life.&rdquo;

&ldquo;When I was competing, I thought it was impossible for a Filipino to win,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;So being back as a jury and model mentor was a give-back moment for me. It&rsquo;s about passing on what you&rsquo;ve learned and leaving an impact, so that even if someone looks at an old photo years from now, they still remember what you did.&rdquo;
That sense of legacy drives her. Reins talks about modeling as something collaborative &mdash; less about herself and more about the story being told.
&ldquo;A model&rsquo;s job is to be a blank canvas &mdash; to bring the creative&rsquo;s vision to life,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;We all work together. That&rsquo;s what makes the work fulfilling.&rdquo;

Korean-British model Eugene Reggio&rsquo;s path couldn&rsquo;t be more different.
&ldquo;I was in Paris when I got a direct message through Instagram from an agent about modeling in the Philippines,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I said &lsquo;no&rsquo; multiple times because I didn&rsquo;t even know there was a modeling scene here.&rdquo;
Eventually, curiosity won. He booked a flight, tried a few test shoots and ultimately stayed.

&ldquo;It ended up being the best decision I&rsquo;ve made,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I started working every day. I learned how to be a real professional because there&rsquo;s so much happening here. You can&rsquo;t just show up unprepared. You have to keep up.&rdquo;
He laughs when he says it, but it&rsquo;s not an exaggeration. The Philippines has a fast-paced, growing modeling circuit, and Reggio found himself booked nearly nonstop.

&ldquo;It&rsquo;s only been good experiences for me,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I just clicked with everyone so well in the industry and I got along with all the designers. Thankfully, everybody liked my look. It&rsquo;s been a real pleasure and there's not really been any challenges at all. My time here has gone so fast.&rdquo;
He smiles at the thought. It&rsquo;s been fun, mostly because the industry here feels different. It runs on collaboration and mutual respect instead of ego.
&ldquo;Abroad, sometimes, you feel like the model is at the bottom of the food chain,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Here, it&rsquo;s different. You actually work with the team, you collaborate. Everyone wants to create something great together.&rdquo;

Across Southeast Asia, running culture has evolved way past early-morning laps and weekend marathons. The line between performance and lifestyle is virtually gone. Manila, like most fast-moving cities, has found a way to make that shift its own. You see it everywhere: artists on their way to the studio, designers grabbing coffee, musicians between rehearsals, models off-duty&hellip; you name it. The running shoe has become their unofficial uniform.
And it definitely makes sense. In a city where the weather never really cooperates and everything&rsquo;s always a little urgent, you need something that keeps up. Sneakers like the ones Reins and Reggio are wearing work in almost every situation.

&ldquo;I used to be more of a heels or Mary Janes kind of girl,&rdquo; Reins says. &ldquo;But being in fashion made me realize you can wear sneakers however you want. There isn&rsquo;t a rule. You can dress them up, dress them down and make them yours.&rdquo;
&ldquo;I used to wear New Balance for soccer and sports,&rdquo; Reggio says. &ldquo;Now I like the casual styles.&rdquo; He adds, &ldquo;Sneakers play a big part in how someone dresses.&rdquo;
Back on set, you see why the shoes work. As models, Reins and Reggio can move easily and focus on the job.

By the second half of the shoot, the light&rsquo;s softer and the pace has settled. Reins moves through her poses, while Reggio studies the monitor, checking the last few shots. They&rsquo;ve hit their stride.
Modeling looks easy when it&rsquo;s done right, but it takes a lot more than people think. You&rsquo;re reading the light and watching for subtle shifts in mood, trying to hit the right moment without forcing it. It&rsquo;s physical work too: keeping your posture, staying in character and doing the same thing over and over until it clicks. But the good ones never let it show.

That&rsquo;s what you see with both Reins and Reggio. You can tell they&rsquo;re locked in. They know the job is about making everyone else&rsquo;s work fall into place, including the lighting, the styling and of course, the shot. And maybe that&rsquo;s what sets them apart. To them, it&rsquo;s a craft. And you get the sense they&rsquo;ll still be doing this years from now, just as sharp, if not more.
By the end of the shoot, the room is quiet again. The crew packs up cables and the last frames flicker on the monitor. Reins and Reggio scroll through a few photos. The energy that filled the room all morning has settled into something slower as everyone exhales, knowing they got the shot.

&ldquo;The best way to stand out is to have passion for the craft, to be professional and to be nice to everyone,&rdquo; Reins says. And in an industry that moves fast and burns out talent even faster, that kind of attitude matters.
To put it simply: finding that balance isn&rsquo;t hard. Do the job, do it well and keep showing up.

The New Balance FuelCell Rebel v5 and New Balance Fresh Foam X 1080v14 are available at Foot Locker stores and online.

PRODUCERS Paolo Chua and Knelle Rosario
STYLING Steven Coralde
MAKEUP Zidjian Floro
HAIR JA Feliciano
VIDEO Heidi Bayani
SET DESIGN Tangerine Projects
MODELS Eugene of Mercator and Mika of Monarq
PHOTOGRAPHER&rsquo;S ASSISTANTS Alexis Wang and Dom Pamatmat
MAKEUP ASSISTANT Arman Adriano
SEAT TEAM Gill Navarro, Angelbert Pedradoja, Reynaldo Lacson, Jeffrey Carbajosa, Eduardo Lebris

One Step Ahead: Eugene Reggio and Mika Reins

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