Are black sneakers the new white sneakers?

White sneakers have long been the reigning queens of footwear, but in an era of fashion where we’ve destroyed the skinny jean and brought back the low-rise, no staple piece is ever really safe. Over the past few seasons, the black sneaker has been on the rise, with celebs wearing everything from the gorpcore Salomon XT-6 to black adidas Sambas. This prompts the question, are black sneakers the new white sneakers? Or, at the very least, are they a worthy contender against the white sneaker monopoly? White sneakers have their perks — they go with everything, can dress down an outfit well, and give an effortless clean-girl-aesthetic look to any outfit. But if there’s one thing we know about trends, it's that they come and go.

Emma Chamberlain

Hailey Bieber

Emily Ratajkowski

Jennie

Bella Hadid

Katie Holmes

Over the past five years, we’ve seen this already with the rise of the gorp-core-gone-chic Salomon XT-6-FT and the fall of the adidas Stan Smith. It’s not just Brenda Hashtag, the influencer who only wears either black or white garments that sports black sneakers; it’s it-girls such as Katie Holmes, Emily Ratajkowski, and Hailey Bieber. This begs the question, is it possible that we’re moving away from the refined and basic white sneaker to its darker counterpart? We think, yes. Leading the rise of black sneakers is the adidas black Samba. TikToker NewmanParker reported on the black Sambas last fall, calling it the «shoe you’ll see a lot of,» and he was right. Not only was the adidas Samba in the black colorway a hit last fall, but according to data from Google Trends, search volume peaked worldwide for the adidas Samba at 100% in April 2023, with the black colorway being one of the best-sellers. Even outside of the ever-popular adidas Samba, black sneakers like the adidas Superstar are popping up in TikTok fashion edits, such as this video from Celestial Vision, as a must-have.

In an age of constant transformation, where fashion is more fluid than ever, the shift from black to white sneakers is more than just adding dimension to wardrobes; it’s a collective turn from the clean-girl aesthetic of 2020 toward a new era of daily wear fashion. Julia Fox said it herself on Emily Ratajkowski’s podcast High Low with EmRata: «Clean-girl aesthetic is out. It’s more about, like, dirty girl.» So while white sneakers might be on their way out, moving in is not only black sneakers but the freedom to break free from the clean-girl aesthetic, or as Fox put it, embrace the dirty-girl. Sorry, Millenials. You’ve been asking Gen Z for help with which white sneakers are “in” this season, but it seems the trends might be changing yet again.