diff --git a/.github/workflows/wheels.yml b/.github/workflows/wheels.yml
index 2c56dc8..1cf47ec 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/wheels.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/wheels.yml
@@ -19,17 +19,12 @@ jobs:
 
     env:
       CIBW_SKIP: "pp*"
-      CIBW_ENVIRONMENT: "SETUPTOOLS_USE_DISTUTILS=stdlib"
       CIBW_BEFORE_BUILD: pip install "numpy>=1.26.2" --config-settings=setup-args="-Dallow-noblas=true"
 
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v3
         with:
           fetch-depth: 0  # Needed to retrieve tags for determining crick version number
-      - name: Upgrade setuptools
-        run: |
-          # workaround for 3.12, SEE: https://github.com/pypa/setuptools/issues/3661#issuecomment-1813845177
-          pip install --upgrade setuptools
 
       - name: Build wheels
         uses: pypa/cibuildwheel@v2.17.0
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index f808c83..a9e2419 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ requires = [
     "setuptools>=68.2.2",
     "setuptools-scm[toml]>=6.2",
     "Cython",
-    "numpy",
+    "numpy>=1.26.2",
     "versioneer[toml]",
 ]
 build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta:__legacy__"