It’s 2026—is sneaker culture still kicking? That question lingered in the air through the last days of 2025, fueled by social media discourse amongst sneakerheads, content creators, and longtime vets of the retail and brand-collaboration world. It’s a rhetorical question without a real answer unless you’re looking exclusively at dwindling sales numbers and prices on resale platforms like GOAT, KicksCrew, StockX, and others. The real answer is a little more complicated.
Sneaker culture is undeniably shifting; the peak era of Air Jordan collabs and retros ruling the market and fetching astronomical markups at resale has somewhat definitively come to a close. You can point to the resale industry, the pandemic, the Last Dance craze finally dying down a little, and oversaturation as reasons but the biggest factor in the shift is a bit simpler: things change. And here at GQ we have long believed that change is good.
The tides have been changing in the sneaker scene for a minute and beneath the “what does it all mean?” discourse of 2025 there were glimpses at what the future holds—and in my opinion, it’s bright. New collaborators like LAAMS at Nike, Willy Chavarria at Adidas, and Auralee at New Balance gave us forward-thinking interpretations of shoes we’ve long known and loved, while tried and true voices like Nigel Sylvester and Bad Bunny put out some of the most exciting work of their tenures with Jordan and Adidas, respectively. Torpedo shoes started blowing up. Tyler, the Creator launched the insanely cool 1908 project with Converse. Vans came out of nowhere with exciting collaborations that made them a bonafide Brand To Watch for the first time in ages. Sneakers are, arguably, as exciting as ever—just not in the way they’ve been in the past.
Looking ahead at what the next year has in store for the sneaker scene, we reached out to some of our favorite voices in the industry for their perspective on what 2026 will bring for sneaker trends, the resale industry, and which kicks they can’t wait to lace up for the next 12 months.
What’s the sneaker trend you see taking off in 2026?
Brendan Dunne, senior director of community engagement, StockX: I think that generally we’re going to see all of sportswear pivot toward soccer silhouettes
for the World Cup. Almost every big sneaker company will be looking to capitalize on this moment, so there will be a gamut of cleats-turned-sneakers, streetwear collabs on kits, and brand events around the games.
Andy Dutton, content creator, @__adsneaks: I think we’re going to see people lean even more toward comfort over nostalgia. Retro mesh runners have been steadily gaining ground, and based on what I see my students wearing and what consistently shows up on social media, that momentum isn’t slowing down. Major brands have invested heavily in their running category, and it’s translating into everyday style, not just performance.
Click here to read the full survey, including our panelists’ picks for the sneakers they’re most excited to wear this year.
