![]() ![]() But what Jae Tips was able to bring to the model is what captured everyone’s attention. Jae Tips’ canvas was the Grid Azura 2000, a largely forgotten runner from the brand’s archive that was never exactly flying off of shelves. But with the help of Bronx-born designer Jae Tips, Saucony did just. It’s just tough to cut through the noise of all of the hyped-up projects from bigger brands that pepper our social media feeds every single day. Not to say that the brand hasn’t been making good sneakers. It isn’t often that Saucony finds its way onto our sneaker of the year lists. If anything, it’s a perfect companion to his 2023 album Utopia: predictable, kinda boring, yet too big to ignore. It can’t be better because this formula feels rather stale after so many years, but the women’s Travis Scott x Air Jordan 1 Low “Olive” is undoubtedly one of the designs that define the year. It’s certainly a bigger shoe volume wise than some of the other pairs we ranked higher here. This is a massive hype shoe that sold out instantly and that people are willing to pay over retail for on the secondary market-that still means something. He’s still the guy Jordan Brand and Nike go to when they want to heat up a silhouette. Travis is still the guy setting records on the SNKRS app. The thing is, whether or not they’re still exciting to you reading this, Travis Scott Air Jordans are some of the biggest, most well-received, most coveted drops in sneakers. What the hell is this shoe doing on the list? Hasn’t Travis Scott released a bunch of Air Jordan 1s that are barely discernible from each other? Doesn’t he have yet another one coming next year that looks like the rest of them? Shouldn’t these slots to some extent prioritize what’s new and exciting in sneakers? Yes, but let us explain. Here it is, our slightly revised, this time totally infallible list of the best sneakers of 2023. The Cactus Plant Flea Market x Nike Air Flea 2 is a super-new shoe that could have landed on this list, but we’re still uncertain if it’s on the right side of ugly or funky.īut enough preamble. There are no SB Dunks on here the Jarritos faded pretty fast, and Born and Raised’s poignant release felt just outside of the bubble. Same goes for all those Y2K-style mesh running shoes-we’d actually included Aimé Leon Dore’s New Balance 860V2 on the version of the list presented at ComplexCon to represent that whole wave, but the feedback in the room was that the shoe wasn’t singularly meaningful enough to warrant the spot. ![]() There are no Sambas for the same reason, although about half of our group was campaigning hard for the metallic silver Wales Bonner pair. There are no Nike Zoom Vomero 5s because, while that was a big shoe this year, it didn’t feel like any singular pair was significant enough to warrant inclusion. ![]() We’re certain these changes won’t quiet all the critics, and that’s not what we’re here to do, but hopefully they result in a list that’s a little more reflective of our audience’s taste. So we went back to our list, switched things around, let some others in and kicked others off, and came up with a new list. Maybe nobody cares about the Nocta Glide. what was really big in sneakers this year. Maybe we were erring at times on the side of niche vs. But the early feedback on the first version of our picks for best sneakers-presented, as is tradition, at the Sneaker of the Year Panel at ComplexCon in Long Beach-had us thinking that maybe some of the selections were too cute. ![]() what’s big, what’s actually wearable, and how much to factor in resale price (by the way, that’s never the sole determiner of ranking here, but we sometimes go to it as a tiebreaker). We culled the group down to 10 shoes, arguing to the bitter end about what’s good vs. We excluded anything that didn’t actually release and couldn’t really be tested by the market. We referenced our mid-year best sneaker rankings to see what needed adjusting, shifting some and removing others that didn’t feel as exciting six months later. To start, we listed off around 20 sneakers that we felt were worthy of inclusion-the most exciting, interesting, and in some cases just the biggest. Before we get into the whole business of boldly telling you which are the best sneakers of 2023, let’s talk about how we got here. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |