THE LATEST shoe trending among Hollywood It girls and fashion types isn’t a slim stiletto or a sleek, minimalist mule. It’s a sneaker. A chunky, technical running sneaker, to be exact. Mary-Kate Olsen has been seen sporting Salomon Speedcross 3s, high-performance trail-running shoes. Hailey Bieber has lately swapped her Jimmy Choos for a bulky Balenciaga sneaker. And model and author Emily Ratajkowski has frequently been photographed in white Asics sneaks while striding through New York.
Sneakers have been a la mode before. Designer sneaker brands like Common Projects and Golden Goose rose to popularity over a decade ago. And it’s been five years since Balenciaga first showed the clunky Triple S that motivated just about every other high-fashion brand to launch its own signature sneaker. What’s feeling fresh in sneaker spheres these days, however, is unflashy, earnestly functional shoes. They let women “dress down and intentionally create a contrast with dressy fashion,” said Søren Kolborg Sørensen, stylist and content-creation manager for Wood Wood, a Copenhagen retailer that sells a slew of sneaker options along with its own clothing line.
