The sneaker of the year conversation rarely leaves anyone happy.
Every publication and pundit has their own criteria. Some emphasise data, others pick based on vibes. Others just pick their personal favourites. Sometimes a consensus sneaker emerges, like in 2017, when Virgil Abloh’s “The Ten” Air Jordan 1 was crowned an instant classic by Complex, Hypebeast and others.
Then there’s this year.
Pharrell’s Adidas Jellyfish won Shoe of the Year at the Footwear News awards. Meanwhile, Complex went with Nigel Sylvester’s all-red “Brick by Brick” Air Jordan 4. The publication got blowback online for putting out a list deemed too Nike-centric — a critique that would be hard to imagine even five years ago.
“I think it’s hard to do,” said Brendan Dunne, senior director of community engagement at StockX, who was part of the Complex panel that compiled the SOTY list. “It’s cool to say that the list sucked.”
So we at The Business of Fashion knew what we were getting into when we decided to jump into the sneaker of the year conversation. But we felt like there was no better time during such a pivotal year for the sneaker and sportswear industry.
This year, Nike’s turnaround began to take hold, while some challengers such as Hoka saw growth slow; others, including On and Salomon, are still surging. There was consolidation in sneaker retail with Dick’s Sporting Goods acquiring Foot Locker. Those sky-high premiums that sneakers once fetched on resale platforms during the pandemic look like a bubble in retrospect, but prices are starting to rebound. And fresh formats are bringing new excitement to the market: entrants in EQL’s sneaker raffles committed to spend over $1 billion if they won the right to shop one of the site’s limited-quantity launches.
No top 10 list can tell such a complex and fast-moving story. Instead of crowning a sneaker that won the year, we looked for the sneakers that shaped it. Data, expert opinions and BoF’s own readers all had different reads on what happened in the sneaker market this year, and where it’s headed.
If there’s one takeaway from a year’s worth of big sneaker releases, it’s that sneaker culture may be fragmented and in flux, but it is alive and well.
The Resale Market’s Pick
We’re a long way from the times when new sneakers sold out, then popped up for a stiff premium in the resale market on an almost daily basis. But after crashing last year, the secondhand market is showing some life again, pointing to more heat around sneakers, at least with their most motivated customers.
Based purely on the premium over retail it fetched on StockX, Nike’s Mars Yard 3.0 collaboration with the artist Tom Sachs was the most desired sneaker of 2025, selling for an average of 291 percent premium over its $275 retail value (though to score a pair at that price, you’d have had to have downloaded a Nike app and participated in a series of Sachs-designed challenges).
Sachs’ Nike collaborations have always commanded high premiums because of their extremely limited nature and his niche fanbase. There was also pent-up demand; the collaboration was put on ice in 2023 after allegations the artist facilitated a toxic environment at his studio.
The runner-up when it came to resale premiums, Vans’ Old Skool 36 “Souvenir” model, is another story. Vans has been absent from the overall conversation over the last few years, and its return is another sign that brands other than Nike can command attention. According to data provided by StockX, the shoes that saw the highest resale premiums were released by six different brands (though Converse and Jordan are both Nike-owned).
Resale cooled significantly starting in 2023 with the end of Adidas partnership with Yeezy. Nike also flooded the market with Jordans and Dunks before pulling back under chief executive Elliott Hill, who started in October 2024.
Hill has redirected Nike to focus on sports again, with the less-hype-driven running category a major success. Meanwhile, the increased scarcity of collectible Nike silhouettes is rebuilding its brand heat and value on secondary markets.
A clear example that resonated on StockX this year was a “Bubblegum Pink” Retro Air Jordan 5 collaboration with Awake NY which was numbered to just 7,000 pairs on the shoe’s tongue. That limited run contrasts Nike’s old “exclusivity at scale” approach embraced by Hill’s predecessor, John Donahoe. In a 2022 earnings call, he described how “hundreds of thousands” of Nike customers could buy Off-White and Nike Dunk collaborations available in 50 different iterations.
“You’ve seen Nike try to do more of those products that have a story behind them rather than just put out a bunch of Jordan 1s in random colorways and hope for the best,” said Needham & Company analyst Tom Nikic.
Still, the big sneaker brands have a long way to go to undo the excesses of their recent past.
The People’s Pick
Numbers can only tell you so much. Hype is driven by emotion beyond scarcity or marketing. So we polled both our regular readership and prominent tastemakers for their sneaker of the year pick.
We asked readers of The Kicks You Wear, BoF’s sports and fashion newsletter, to pick from 10 buzzy sneaker releases this year. We heard from 177 of you. While the Mars Yard 3.0 received a respectable 15 votes (8.6 percent), it was beaten handily by the Vans Old Skool 36 “Souvenir,” with 27 votes, or 15.3 percent. Others with more than 5 percent of the vote included the Adidas Jellyfish — a Balenciaga Triple S-esque sneaker by Pharrell Williams that debuted in August — and Converse’s Sha-001, which is Shai Gilgeous Alexander’s debut signature basketball shoe.
The real winner, though, was the write-in option, with 31 entries. Readers told us they loved surprising re-releases of coveted Nike grails, such as Air “Galaxy” Foamposites that originally came out in 2013 and Undefeated Air Jordan 4s that used to fetch tens of thousands of dollars at auction. Yet the variety of write-ins also unveiled to us that enthusiasts are paying attention to shoes beyond classic silhouettes by Nike and Jordan. Multiple write-ins shouted out Salomon as a brand alone, Puma’s Hali 1 basketball sneaker by Salehe Bembury, and Adidas EVO SL running sneakers.
The Experts’ Pick
The Business of Fashion also polled 19 footwear industry experts for their picks. We asked them to select their individual “Sneaker of the Year,” with the caveat that they could not select their own shoe if they created one, collaborated on it with a brand, or played a heavy role in bringing it to market.
The experts were even more divided than our readers, though that’s partly down to methodology – each made their own pick rather than choosing from a list. Only four shoes received even two votes: the Adidas Jellyfish, Awake NY x Air Jordan 5s, Infinite Archives Air Jordan 17s and Adidas EVO SLs. The other 15 experts picked 15 different sneakers.
What they could agree on is that there’s still a strong desire for more footwear innovation.
“No retro should be sneaker of the year,” said JD Sports’ partnership strategist Travonne Edwards. “Instead, we should celebrate new silhouettes which allow designers to take their creativity a step forward.”
Seasoned sneaker commentators such as Jazerai Allen-Lord and Jacques Slade both singled out the Adidas Jellyfish by Pharrell for being an entirely new and current silhouette.
“Everyone’s still tapping into that history and the old retro models,” said Scott Carter, EQL’s sneakers and streetwear category lead. “That’s working to a point, but I do think there’s anticipation in the market from consumers who want something new and I don’t think we’ve seen that yet.”
Staple founder Jeff Staple, a pioneer when it comes to defining a hyped sneaker release, sums up the lack of innovation we’re seeing in the market best by picking the Ava Rover, an entirely new Nike silhouette.
“Inline, general release, product is the foundation of sneaker culture. Collabs, retros and limited editions should add to that foundation—not be the foundation itself,” said Staple.
The Shoppers’ Pick
Of course, what’s resonating amongst hypebeasts only captures a small part of the sneaker market, where most shoppers are not invested in the many basketball sneakers (or that one pair of Vans) that captured sneakerheads’ attention in 2025.
For a random customer at Dick’s or JD Sports, the sneaker of the year might be a retro football or running sneaker they plan to actually wear, not a reissued basketball shoe meant to be kept in mint condition on a shelf.
This year, running sneakers didn’t only gain more momentum from becoming a trendy activewear subcategory but was also fueled by consumers valuing sneakers with form, function and innovation in mind.
Some performance-focused brands, like On and Salomon, have capitalized on the marketplace’s new mindset by combining their buzzy collaborations with new innovations. Others, like Hoka, have fallen behind a bit after catching early momentum, struggling to bridge the gap between function and fashion.
Similarly, the rise of retro football sneakers such as Adidas Sambas have been fueled by anticipation for the FIFA World Cup next year and women’s footwear trends embracing slimmer silhouettes that many football sneakers aptly address. This year, retailers looked towards silhouettes such as the Adidas Taekwondo to address the Samba’s cooling hype while also acknowledging the growing women’s sneaker market.
So What Ultimately Shapes the SOTY Conversation?
When looking at what drove sneakers in 2025, it’s clear that what united true sneakerheads and shoppers who have never heard of Nigel Sylvester, let alone his “Brick by Brick” Air Jordan 4, was storytelling. That can mean anything from clever – or simply ubiquitous – marketing, to design choices that stood out or word of mouth from influencers and consumers.
“I think it only matters if you can use the platform to drive something meaningful,” said James Whitner, the founder of the Whitaker Group.
If anyone knows what it takes to release the SOTY, it’s Whitner. The Whitaker Group won Footwear News’ collaboration of the year award for A Ma Maniére’s “Raised by Women” Air Jordan 3.
He made four selections for his 2025 pick: Joe FreshGoods’ New Balance 2010, Nigel Sylvester’s Air Jordan 1 Low, Jae Tips’ Saucony Triumph 4 and Salehe Bembury’s Osmosis. He picked those four because of the conversations he feels they generated.
“They found interesting ways to drive and push the platform and to make it meaningful,” he said.
BoF Insights, The Business of Fashion’s data consultant team that analytically measures brands’ cultural impact, looked at the online buzz from five of the most talked about sneakers this year, including Nigel Sylvester’s Air Jordan 4, the Adidas Jellyfish, Vans’ “Souvenir” Old Skool ‘36, Nike’s Mars Yard 3.0 and the Awake Air Jordan 5.
Beyond general scarcity, each had an element that fielded the conversation around it. That included everything from the unboxing videos on social to gamified release strategies that turn sneaker launches into larger narratives beyond how quickly it sold out.
For example, the insights team found that online conversation around the style versatility behind the “Brick by Brick” Jordan 4 was a big driver for the shoe. It had an impact in both the luxury and streetwear spaces. The team also found that the Chanel Graffiti bag inspiration behind the “Souvenir” Vans was a big driver in its own conversation — particularly at its $125 retail price point. Vans found a way to make a common skate shoe aspirational, and fans responded to that.
The levers these brands pulled to differentiate these limited-edition sneakers from their counterparts are what made them legitimate candidates for sneaker of the year for their biggest fans.
So what makes the sneaker of the year? Truly, what it comes down to this year is personal choice. For some, newness or innovation mattered the most. For others, it was about stylish versatility. But for everyone, the choice was different and each came with valid reasoning.
While that may not be a satisfying conclusion for those looking for rankings and end-of-year lists, what matters most is the satisfied customer on the other end of the purchase.
