The modern sneaker is no longer simply something you wear. It’s something you collect, trade, and even invest in. What began as performance footwear now sits at the centre of modern style and at the heart of one of fashion’s most compelling financial stories.
The global sneaker resale market, where coveted pairs trade hands long after they’ve left the shop floor, reached $11.5 billion in 2023, accounting for more than 15 percent of sneaker sales worldwide. It is projected to grow to $53.2 billion by 2033. Meanwhile, the broader sneaker market was valued at approximately $94 billion in 2024 and is expected to surpass $157 billion within the decade. The sneaker is no longer a trend; it’s one of fashion’s most powerful economies.
But numbers only tell part of the story. The real shift is cultural. The sneaker is no longer something you slip on for comfort. It is something you wear on purpose: a signal of taste, style, and intent.
Craft over logos and design over hype. These are our picks of sneakers that have mastered the language.
The Sneakers That Define the Moment
Maison Margiela – Replica (The Gat)
A shoe you notice not because it shouts, but because it doesn’t. The GAT (German Army Trainer) launched in the 1970s as a West German military commission; functional, minimal, built for daily drills. White leather, grey suede, and a gum sole – a soldier’s shoe.
When the Wall fell, surplus pairs filtered into second-hand markets across Europe. Martin Margiela found them in Austrian surplus shops in the 1990s and immediately fell in love. For SS 1999, he bought up vintage pairs, customised them with hand-painted markings, and sent them down the runway. Each pair was sold with a card, encouraging the new owner to add their own flair.
They were not reproductions; they were the real thing, transformed. As supply dwindled, Margiela produced his own in Italian calfskin, naming it the Replica as an homage to its origins.
Golden Goose – Super-Star
A Golden Goose sneaker arrives pre-scuffed, distressed, and deliberately worn-in, and still commands a loyal following. Founded in Venice in 2000, the brand has perfected the art of luxury nonchalance. The idea that real money rarely looks freshly polished, the Super-Star’s signature star appliqué and softly aged leather communicate ease in the way only careful construction can. Nothing about it feels pristine, yet every detail is intentional. This is not a shoe for people who are trying, it is for people who have already arrived.
Common Projects – Achilles
Zero logos. No branding. Just a gold serial number: item code, colour, size, stamped in small numerals on clean leather. The Common Projects Achilles is the original stealth-wealth sneaker – the one that taught a generation that the most powerful flex is no flex at all. Crafted in Italy from supple Napa leather, it was designed to sit between a casual sneaker and a dress shoe, and it does so without a single unnecessary detail. Deliberately boring to anyone who doesn’t know, but to those who know, it says everything.
Loewe – Flow & Ballet Runners
Under Jonathan Anderson (now at Dior), Loewe became one of fashion’s most intentional houses, and its sneakers reflect just that. The Flow Runner and Ballet Runner are craft-led and design-forward. Where other luxury brands have simply applied a logo to a running silhouette, Loewe has approached sneakers with the same eye applied to its bags and ready-to-wear items, where structure, proportion, and material are all given equal attention. The result is sneakers that feel like wearable sculptures rather than athletic footwear. Available at 2A.
Dries Van Noten Sneakers
Ask any seasoned fashion editor what they are wearing on their feet in an airport, at a show, or between appointments, and the answer is increasingly Dries. Low-key and design-led, Dries Van Noten sneakers prioritise texture, colour, and proportion. Unexpected palettes, thoughtful textile contrasts, and silhouettes that feel considered rather than engineered for hype. This is the insider’s sneaker; never the loudest thing in the room, but often the most interesting.
New Balance – 327
New Balance sits comfortably outside trend cycles, which is precisely why it keeps returning. While other brands chase collaborations and hype drops, New Balance has spent decades quietly perfecting some of the most comfortable, well-constructed running shoes on the market, and the fashion world has noticed. The 327 has carved out a loyal following for its retro running DNA and endless versatility. Worn with tailoring, deliberately, the New Balance signals ease rather than effort.
Salomon – XT-6 & ACS Pro
Built for mountain trails and adopted – unchanged – by the runway, Salomon’s crossover into fashion is one of the more unexpected stories of the past five years. The French outdoor brand, founded in 1947 in the Alps, became a street-style obsession when the industry realised that styling technical Salomons with casual, even high-fashion pieces looked unexpectedly chic. The XT-6 and ACS Pro feature aggressive lug soles, advanced cushioning systems, and a futuristic silhouette that reads as both highly functional and distinctly avant-garde. A pair of Salomons communicates that you are prepared for movement, even if the only terrain ahead is a dinner reservation across town.
Veja – Campo & Volley
Veja makes fashion ethical without making fashion feel uncool. Founded in Paris in 2004, the brand began when Sébastien Kopp and François-Ghislain Morillion travelled to northern Brazil to meet directly with organic cotton farmers and wild rubber tappers in the Amazon. They built a transparent supply chain from the ground up before a single shoe was made.
The Campo is the House’s most versatile silhouette: a clean, low-profile leather sneaker with a faintly retro cut. The Volley, Veja’s very first model, launched in 2005 and inspired by Brazilian volleyball shoes of the 1970s, takes a slightly more casual line; organic cotton or suede upper, slim T-toe, and the same ethical construction underneath. Two different moods, one consistent philosophy: minimal, intentional, and always noticed.
alchemyshop.co.za; veja-store.com
Bathu – The Khalanga
Bathu (the township slang for ‘shoes’) was founded by Theo Baloyi in 2025 and has become one of the continent’s most recognised sneaker brands – and one of its most meaningful. The Khalanga has a clean, structured silhouette with Bathu’s signature breathable mesh detailing and a playful colour palette that speaks directly to the African wardrobe. Designed in South Africa and built for the African consumer, the brand recently announced media personality and rapper, Boity, as a brand ambassador. Bathu asserts a distinctly local identity through design language, cultural story, and pride of origin. To wear the Khalanga is to participate in something: the ongoing, important project of African design on African terms.
Onitsuka Tiger – Mexico 66
Few sneakers carry as much story as the Mexico 66. Onitsuka Tiger was founded in Kobe in 1949 by Kihachiro Onitsuka, a former military officer who believed sport could help rebuild morale in post-war Japan. The brand went on to outfit Japanese Olympic teams and play an unexpected role in sneaker history (Phil Knight’s Blue Ribbon Sports began as its American distributor before evolving into Nike).
Introduced for the 1968 Summer Olympics, the Mexico 66 is the brand’s most enduring silhouette: low-profile, clean lines, defined by its signature crossed stripes. Its cultural reach extends beyond sport; most memorably in the yellow-and-black pair worn by Uma Thurman as The Bride in Kill Bill: Vol. 1. After the original company merged to form ASICS Corporation in 1977, the Onitsuka Tiger name was revived by ASICS in 2002 as a fashion-forward lifestyle label. The Mexico 66 remains its signature – a sneaker where history, cinema, and style meet.
