The 20 most influential sneaker designs of all time

A timeless classic, the Converse All Star – or Chuck Taylor All Star – are the perfect example of a shoe being able to evolve, adapt and reach a transversal audience by always staying on trend and without never subverting the original design concept. Like many other canvas sneakers of the early 1900s, they were born as a product of a firm operating in the field of rubber technology. It’s in 1923, though, that the All Star finally acquired the design that still helps it to stand out these days thanks to the intuition of Chuck Taylor, an employee of the company and a former basketball player.  This made Converse a quintessentially American shoe: not only their ankle-wrapping silhouette was determined by the ergonomic needs of the players on the court, but their widespread affirmation also came after their use as the official shoe of the 1936 Olympics and their inclusion, since the 1940s, in the uniform of the U.S. Army soldiers. 
The company’s smart marketing moves – like the introduction of the iconic starred circular patch on the ankle – and the intuition to offer a varied range of colours matching those of the teams’ uniforms were pivotal in imposing Converse over its many competitors as a favourite among basketball players of the 1960s, in both the NBA and the college circuits.  It was indeed the widespread use of the sneakers across the American campuses what resulted fundamental in operating the transition of Converse All Star from sportswear to streetwear. When in the 1970s the appeal of this precise model on basketball courts declined in favour of others, comprising of leather uppers and thicker soles, the road was already paved for the future of the shoe. Adopted in the streets by teenagers both in the Afro-American and in the white communities, Converse All Star hi-tops turned into a staple of the wardrobes of young rebels. When Ramones, then, were shot wearing black All Star hi-tops on the cover of their chart-topping debut album history was made and Converse’s future forever changed.  
Since 2013 the brand has been reissuing the Hi-Top ‘70 model (pictured), now particularly on vouge similarly to its collaboration with Comme Des Garçons launched in 2015. It aims to reproduce the shoe once used on basketball courts and it features thicker canvas, a smaller rubber toe cap and thicker, glossier soles.  

The epitome of the tennis sneaker, a shoe able to switch from the courts to the streets with seamless and unique fluidity. The Superga 2750 is an Italian icon that stood the test of time thanks to its minimalist and clean silhouette and volcanic rubber sole first conceived by its creator and rubber entrepreneur Walter Martiny. The shoe was further perfectioned when the Italian brand – which took its name from the Superga Hill located in Turin – was acquired by tyre colossus Pirelli in 1951. Despite becoming bona fide streetwear and fashion classics – the sneaker was used as an alternative to formal shoes on the Milanese catwalks through the whole of the ‘80s - Superga kept producing successful tennis sneakers, like the 2750 Cotu Panatta. These sneakers featured the Superga motif stitched on the side and were worn by Adriano Panatta in the glory year of 1976, when the Italian player secured the Davis Cup, the Italy’s Internazionali and the Roland Garros.  

The development of sneakers has always gone hand in hand with technological innovations in the field of design, anatomy and pneumatics. It is no wonder that the Green Flash were conceived by Dunlop, the historical British brand that in the late 1800s had first patented the pneumatic tyre when founder John Boyd Dunlop was trying to improve the comfort of his son’s bike rides. The Green Flash became renowned when English tennis colossus Fred Perry – a future fashion entrepreneur himself – wore them on the court. Dunlop Green Flash represented a great innovation for their times when they brightened up the standard white sport shoe with emerald green details 

It is rather ironical that Adidas’ best-selling sneaker (the 22 million pairs sold by 1988 had won the brand a Guinnes World Records award) is the one that breaks free from the brand’s tradition the most. The lack of the three stripes – they feature a triple perforation instead – makes the Stan Smith an exception in the Adidas catalogue. At first, they were named after Robert Haillet, the tennis player who endorsed them in the Sixties, but in 1978 the name was changed – this time for good – into Stan Smith. Under this denomination the sneaker reached the peak of its fame and acquired the iconic Smith portrait artwork on the tongue; a characterising that has since been used by Adidas on other releases like the collaboration with former Oasis member Noel Gallagher. The equally representative emerald green tab on the heel is another classic tennis shoe feature that was, no doubt, inspired by the Dunlop Green Flash. Adidas has recently launched a vegan version of the Stan Smith, another sign of the brand's dedication to the theme of sustainability in footwear. 

This model was designed by the Japanese brand for the 1966 Olympic games in Mexico, but their affirmation into Western streetwear only came in 2003, following a rebranding of the shoe and their use– in the black and yellow colourway – by Uma Thurman in Kill Bill 2. The stylistic choice was an explicit tribute director Quentin Tarantino made to the Onitsuka Tiger worn by Bruce Lee in his last (and incomplete) film Game of Death (1972). The Onitsuka Tiger were one of the most technologically advanced running shoes of the Sixties, something that also led them to be partially ripped off by the then up and coming Nike (still named Blue Ribbon). The brand's founders, athletes Phillip Knight and Bill Bowerman, after signing a distribution contract for the Japanese sneaker, thoroughly studied the shoes' technology to then adopt it in a creation of their own for the 1972 Munich Olympic games: the legendary Nike Cortez '72. The sneaker, later turned into an icon on the big screen by Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump, contributed to the extraordinary success of Nike, while the Onitsuka Tiger slipped into oblivion for many years. 

The Vans (or Van Doren, as they were originally known) have remained pretty much untouched since their release on the market, and have since then acquired a cult following spanning from Hardcore Punk devotees to Ivy League students on campus, and, needless to say, skaters of course. It was 1966 when Van Doren added a thicker and sturdier sole to the then popular canvas sneaker to fulfil the needs of the then up and coming skaters. However, Vans are one of the many sneakers that despite being conceived for sporting purposes found a fortune in streetwear. After all, skateboarding was born in the streets as a winter alternative to surf, hence its status constantly halfway between an athletic discipline and a subculture. This resulted in a shoe with a transversal appeal and that can successfully adapt to a plethora of different looks. 

The Suede is the epitome of the Puma sneaker. A shoe conceived for the athletes partaking to the Mexico '68 Olympic games (Tommie Smith wore a black pair during his famous Black Power salute podium ceremony) that presented a suede upper body and a rather tall sole made of white rubber, and that was originally only available in blue suede for the Puma-sponsored athletes and in black suede for the non-Puma ones. The sneaker was at first named Crack (a Sixties slang term that defined a hip person), but in 1972 it temporarily acquired the name Clyde and a more tapered silhouette. The new name was the consequence of the first paid sponsorship ($5,000) between a sports brand and an athlete: the New York Knicks star Walt Frazier, better known as Clyde because of his eccentric fashion style reminiscent of that of gangster Clyde Barrow – a character that between the '60 and the '70s had benefitted from a massive revival in pop culture, as witnessed by songs, films and fashion trends. When in 1977 Frazier called it a day with basketball, the sponsorship ended and the sneaker went once again through a rebranding process, becoming the Puma Suede. The influence of the player on the youngest turned the sneaker into a must have piece of clothing, especially among the Hip Hop pioneers of the New York Afro-American community. As a consequence, the Suede represents the first sneaker highlighting the strict bond between sportswear and streetwear, anticipating of two decades the mass phenomenon of the Air Jordan and the current popularity of sneakers in the fashion industry. 

Similarly to the Converse All Star and the Puma Suede, the Adidas Superstar is another case of sneaker that found its way into streetwear only after becoming a staple of NBA footwear. The great innovation of the Superstar is the reinforced rubber toe cap featuring a ribbed texture that subtly nods to the section of a basketball ball, and that makes the shoe stand out as a sort of hybrid between the Suede and the All Star. It's not until the '80s, though, that the Superstar made the history of sneakers thanks to the Hip Hop scene. Hip Hoppers RUN-DMC often wore the sneaker unlaced turning it into a recurring theme in their songs, like My Adidas (1986). It was this track what persuaded Adidas to sing a $1.6m exclusive partnership with the trio from Hollis, Queens, the first contract ever stipulated between a brand and a rap group – not only an unprecedented decision, but also one that shocked many conservative thinkers of the time.  The sneaker has become such an isttitution of footwear that LEGO even released its version of the shoe.  

The Bundeswehr Sportschuch, also commonly known among sneakerhead and collectors as GAT – German Army Trainer –, is a peculiar sport shoe with an elusive history. The GAT was commissioned by the West Germany Ministry of Defence in the 1970s to be used as a sports and leisurewear sneaker by the army soldiers. At this point documents and memories overlap, giving room to rumours according to which the shoe’s origins lie – needless to say – in the brainchild of brothers Adi and Rudolf Dassler, who in 1948 had respectively founded Adidas and Puma. If the stitching is reminiscent of that designed by both the brothers for the shoes worn by Jesse Owens at the 1936 Berlin Olympic games, the mould of the sneaker is the same used for the Adidas Samba although lacking of the three iconic stripes, here replaced by a series of geometrical layers of off-white suede. With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the consequent downsizing of the West German army, many soldiers returned home turning these shoes into a common and cheaply available piece of streetwear.   However, in 1999 the sneaker’s tide turned when Margiela acquired a deadstock and projected the shoe into luxury fashion. In 2001 the French brand launched a model featuring writings in the style of graffiti all over it, inviting the customers to do the same once purchased the shoe. Today the Bundeswehr Sportschuh is a bona fide cult among workwear and armywear fans, while the Margiela replica can make you feel like a Cold War soldier for just less than €400. Fashion first. 

New Balance has been one of the first brands to understand the importance of technological development also on shoes conceived for streetwear. Since the late '70s the American brand brought forward the concept – already tested by Nike and Adidas – of running shoes featuring an upper body combining suede and nylon. If in 1980 the New Balance 620 represented the lightest shoe so far ever produced, in 1982 the 990 – the first New Balance produced in the United Kingdom – set a new record as the most expensive sneaker ever available on the market ($100). The 990 was able to anticipate that hybrid of top-notch running technology and streetwear comfort that paved the way for the contemporary sneaker and that would later become ironically known as "dad shoe". In fact, the 2007 New Balance 992 – an evolution of the 990 series – became part of the uniform of Apple guru Steve Jobs. However, the success of New Balance in popular culture also lies in their adoption by the Casuals who brought them onto the terraces of British football grounds in the '80s, aiding the transition of sportswear into sought-after luxury fashion. 

If you're not hailing from New York, you may not be familiar with the term "uptowns" by which Nike Air Force 1s go in the Big Apple's inner city, where in the 1980s they reached a cult status. The Air Force 1 was originally produced between 1982 and 1984, however, once discontinued, the requests for the sneaker went off the roof in Harlem alone, leading retailers to appeal to Nike to make the shoe available on the market once again. The positive decision that followed may now be considered particularly wise if we consider that the Air Force 1 has become one of the brand's most coveted and loved models, available in five different heights – ranging from super low to super high with velcro fastening –, in an endless variety of colourways and object of multiple collaborations. The sneaker, whose name is a reference to the American presidential airplane, is also renowned for being the first model ever to employ Nike's trademark Air sole cushioning technology. 

The Reebok Freestyle is a quintessentially 1980s white leather hi-top sneaker that, like the Air Force 1, came out in 1982, a pivotal year for the technological and cultural evolution of this item of clothing. Their fame is mostly linked to the so-called Fitness Craze that in those years brought millions of people to become obsessed with aerobics classes on VHS. The Freestyle is the sneaker worn by Jane Fonda, the epitome of these fitness video lessons. Their triple-cushioned fastening that wraps the ankle was the peculiarity that marked the innovation of the shoe on its competitors. Equally worn with in the gyms with silky bodies in neon colours and in the streets with stone washed denim, the Freestyle as the shoe that aided Reebok to overtake the sales of Nike, albeit briefly.   

The Air Jordans are the sneakers responsible for subverting the rules of the game. They were designed by Nike purposedly for Michael Jordan, back then still an up-and-coming basketball player that, however, had already sparked much enthusiasm when drafted by Chicago Bulls. The Air Jordan I is a basketball leather hi-top that, mostly, surprised everybody by adopting a colourway where red and black dominated over white and therefore breached the NBA rules. Jordan's love for the shoes meant that he was happy to pay a fine of $5,000 every time he wore them for a match, a move that turned the Air Jordan I into icons of subversion and made them a best seller among the youngest. Making the sneaker even more desirable – alongside the fact they benefitted from the exclusivity of being designed for one player only – were small but fundamental details, like the Air Jordan logo designed by Peter C Moore and inspired by airplane pilots' winged badges, an allusion to the player's phenomenal jumping skills. All these elements contributed to making the Air Jordans a mass cultural phenomenon able to generate previously unseen enthusiasm for a pair of sneakers. Will Smith even endorsed them on screen in the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.  Over time the Air Jordan series introduced some further elements, like the historical disappearance of the Nike swoosh (Air Jordan II, 1986), the evolution of the Air technology in the soles, and the advent of the Jumpman logo (Air Jordan III, 1988) designed by Tinker Hatfield that still distinguishes the collection. 
We could argue that the Nike Air Jordan I has been the shoe that succeeded the Puma Suede in elevating a sports shoe into a streetwear staple, yet generating an unparalleled momentum and dedicated following of devoted fans and collectors. 

If according to many Vans is the epitome of the skateboarding shoe, Airwalk represented a solid alternative to the brand throughout the whole of the ‘90s. The Airwalk One is a shoe that prefers performativity and durability to aesthetics, as it was first designed in 1986 by George Yohn and Bill Mann for their fellow skaters with that precise goal in mind, as if to subtly suggest that Vans had taken a direction too close to the world of fashion. Airwalk, with their sturdy rotund silhouette and suede upper, also had the merit of influencing the shape of other successful skateboarding shoes like DC and Etnies, which caused quite a stir among teenagers between the ‘90s and the early ‘00s. 

Some sneakers can make history without even being sold. That is the case of the MAG, a one-off prototype that Nike elusively designed for Michael J Fox to wear in Back to the Future II (1989). More than the ultra-high silhouette and the ultra-light sole, what truly turned these shoes into cult objects was the auto-lacing system, a prompt that was in reality actioned by a set of batteries hidden to the camera. After years of dreaming and wishing, the Tinker Hatfield-designed MAG was finally turned into a real limited-edition sneaker in 2011, although it was still lacking one fundamental detail: the automatic lacing technology. In 2015, though, Fox was seen on the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show with a fully functioning pair on, even featuring the electroluminiscent out-sole. A year later Nike went back to it and, at last, released the perfectioned version in 89 pairs only, making it available only through a raffle whose profits were fully donated to the Michael J Fox foundation fighting Parkinson. 

The Air Max 95 are just one of the many models that throughout the '90s set Nike apart from its competitors, establishing a legacy of models with bold and futuristic traits that, although conceived as runners, simultaneously spoke to the youth, the streets, the clubs. All models that, over twenty years on from their launch, are still cherished, sought-after and never fail to result contemporary with new limited editions colourways and exclusive collaborations. The Air Max 95 was designed by Sergio Lozano who worked inspired by the human anatomy: the Air cushioned midsole represents the spine, the graduated panels are the muscles, the lace loops are the shoe's ribs and the mesh on the upper is the skin. The Air Max 95 – like other sneakers of the series – spread in popularity within the early '00s London Grime scene, however its neon hues give to this model an alien, nearly Cyberpunk feel that no sneaker had previously matched. 

Yeezy is Adidas’ luxury series made in partnership with rapper, entrepreneur and larger-than-life personality Kanye West since 2013. Yeezy break totally free from the tradition of the German brand, developing an aesthetic that – according to West – is equally inspired by 3,000-year-old drawings, Lamborghini silhouettes and the footwear seen in 1988 Japanese cyberpunk animation film Akira. The Yeezy Boost 350 is, perhaps, the most iconic model of the line, and most definitely the one that had the biggest influence on the senaker market.  With the Yeezy Adidas fully introduced into streetwear the use of its uber-light and performative thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) sole technology, until then reserved to its production for athletes. The upper part of the sneaker is made of Adidas Primeknit, a jacquard fabric made of knitted yarns that wraps the foot like a sock. This fabric follows the innovation introduced at the 2012 London Olympic games by the revolutionary Nike Flyknit, a shoe that has since then characterised a new technological approach to leisurewear and streetwear sneakers. 

Despite the fact fashion colossus Balenciaga does not come from a sneaker tradition, its Triple S had the merit of drastically subverting the rules of game both from a design and marketing perspective. The Triple S was designed by Demma Gvasalia e David Tourniaire-Beaucie by overlapping – as suggested by their name – three different types of soles (a running one, a basketball one and an athletic one) with an upper that is a clear reference to the typical '90s chunky sports sneaker in the style of Reebok, Adidas and New Balance. However, the Balenciaga Triple S has to be recognised for demonstrating that all those shoe prototypes that would have previously been labelled as impossible or absurd could actually become a successful reality.  The Triple S appeared so disproportioned and expensive that became a symbol of the post-modern opulence and of the influencer culture. Such resonance – also augmented by meme culture – was actually pivotal in launching the luxury sneaker trend. The shoe followed the wave started by Raf Simons' 2013 restyling of the Adidas Ozweego, becoming responsible for fully opening contemporary fashion to the chunky and oversized sneaker trend. The Balenciaga Triple S is an instant classic. 

With the advent of fast fashion, the sneaker market saw a rise in the range of budget copies of the kicks showcased on catwalks. This phenomenon contributed to make the otherwise exclusive luxury sneakers accessible to a broader audience, contributing to subvert the conception of sport shoes in recent years. The transition of the sneaker from sporting good to elegant garment able to replace the old formal shoe, also in high browed, mature and professional environments tells loads about the way costumes have been changing, contributing to the affirmation of new aesthetic canons. Balenciaga has no doubt been greatly responsible for this, especially with the release of its Sock Sneaker in 2017. However, it was Zara's take (basically a rip-off) on the shoe what truly fire started this model, making Balenciaga's aesthetic vision available to a broad and transversal audience. The Sock Sneaker, partially reminiscent of the Nike MAG, features an upper made of elastic jacquard fabric that wraps the foot all the way up to the ankle, turning the sneaker into a futuristic-looking sock. The bouncy white rubber sole, then, augments the feeling of a piece of footwear conceived for space expeditions. 

The Lidl Sneaker was launched in the summer of 2020 by the low-cost German supermarket colossus as part of a clothing line selling for under €12.99, however it still managed to embody, and to unmask, the (crazy) status quo of the sneaker market. A smart marketing move, rather than a masterpiece of design for sure, the Lidl Sneaker was responsible for first bringing the exclusivity of limited edition drops typical of sportswear and luxury fashion giants into the massified context of a budget supermarket. It was indeed the cultural clash and the incongruity of this dynamic – also emphasised by meme culture – what turned these sneakers into a must have object, so desirable to even trigger the same reselling mechanisms that characterise the collectible sneakers online market.Simply think that one auction fetched €6,000. In the shoes’ explicit references to the design of sneakers like the Balenciaga Triple S, the Nike Huarache, or the Puma LQD, we can trace the sate of a post-modern culture now bent on itself, and suspended between situationism (perhaps) and the ludicrous. Don’t be fooled by resellers, though, as the Lidl Sneaker is now available once again at its original budget price. The bubble has now burst and Lidl has celebrated an incredible commercial success for a brand whose core business is pretty distant from footwear.