The Best Sneakers Brands That Will Take Your Footwear Style To The Next Level

Sneakers are, without doubt, the most popular footwear style worldwide. Resisting the influx of boots and dress shoes, sneakers come in a huge number of styles, colours and materials that all allow us to show off our individual personality. And, because of their ubiquitous nature, pretty much every fashion brand under the sun has their own pairs for you to buy.

This means that all budgets are catered for. Whether you want something cheap and cheerful that you don’t mind giving a beating, or something on the more luxurious end of the scale – including the likes of rare and collectable sneaker models that hypebeasts go gaga for – that only make an appearance for special occasions, there is a sneaker brand out there for everyone.

But what sneaker brands exactly should you be looking out for? While it may be true that no matter what physical shop or online store you turn to will have various options demanding your attention, there are some names you absolutely cannot look past, and we’ve rounded them up into this guide.

The majority of brands and pairs featured fall well into the affordable category, but we’ve also included a few luxury options for those who want to splash a little more cash.

Always wondered what makes luxury sneakers so expensive? Especially when you consider they look the same as a bargain pair of high-street kicks? Allow us to explain all.

What makes the best sneaker brands popular?

• Use of expensive high-grade leathers e.g. pebble leather, which doesn’t crack as much over time
• Thicker leather – this ensures the shoe retains its shape and looks newer for longer
• Tumbled leather – some mid-range shoe brands use this to achieve a balance between quality and affordability

How to pick high-quality sneakers

• Leathers are the easiest to determine in terms of shoe quality but for performance shoes like Nike Air Flyknits and Air Jordan it’s a bit harder
• For materials like suede and leather, test how flexible it is by bending the shoe
• The smell is also a sign – you can smell the inside of a shoe and if it smells like glue you know it’s been made on the cheap
• A good quality shoe needs to smell like good quality leather – as long as they are new, sniff away
• If they are lightweight they will be using more expensive soles which are generally better quality
• If it doesn’t look like it has a lot of manufacturing hours put in then the manufacturing costs shouldn’t be that high – think Converse Chuck Taylor All Star
• Limited editions are also ones to look out for – i.e. Kanye West, Travis Scott.

Where are luxury and high-end sneakers made?

Plenty of luxury sneakers still pride themselves on being made in Italy but this is not the only country of origin for good quality kicks. These days China has matched the Italians when it comes to sneaker construction technology – according to Sneakerboy founder Chris Kyvetos, it’s a defining reason why Balenciaga moved their operations from Italy to China for their popular Triple S line.

“Even with this move to China, Balenciagas aren’t being made in a sneaker factory – they’re still making them in a women’s shoemaking factory in China which has the tools to create a stitched and turned upper that is applied to a sneaker midsole – a process which can’t be achieved in Italy,” he told us.

Beyond Italy, brands like New Balance continue to manufacture sneakers like their flagship 990 ‘dad shoe’ in the USA, using proven methods that date back decades. So the question really shouldn’t be which country luxury sneakers are made in, but what kind of factory or workshop they come from.

A prime example of this is Adidas’ 4D technology sneakers which require special 3D printing machines to construct the intricate sole. As a result, all Adidas FutureCraft 4D sneakers are made in Germany with materials primarily sourced in Germany.

The cost of sneaker design

Look at any sneaker blog and you’ll be dazzled by the array of premium designs on offer implementing some of the most innovative materials. Gore-Tex, Flyknit, React, Boost, Primeknit…the list goes on.

You would think that design plays a huge role in driving up costs of any sneaker, but you’d be wrong, Chris Kyvetos told us.

“A lot of these technologies aren’t developed by the sneaker brands for your running pleasure,” he says. Instead, the cost is usually factored into manufacturing, marketing, branding and profits.

Now that you know what you’re after in a decent sneaker, take a look at our pick of the best grey sneakers, blue sneakers, white sneakers and black sneakers.

Check out the best sneaker brands below to get your shoe brand fix.

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